Morality

In America, let no graven image of a farm animal go naked, lest it inflame the lusty hearts of men:

She said the city's Design Review Board, which makes recommendations about exterior changes to buildings in the district, objected to the painting because it doesn't fit the district's landscape and because naked pigs might lead to paintings of naked people.

America: naked beneath its clothing.

Credibilty

Yup, this upcoming Iraqi election's just gonna be AWASH in credibility:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three militant groups warned Iraqis against voting in Jan. 30 elections, saying Thursday that people participating in the "dirty farce" risked attack. All 700 employees of the electoral commission in Mosul reportedly resigned after being threatened.

Interestingly, the insurgents appear to be taking a page from the Republican campaign playbook:

The radical Ansar al-Sunnah Army and two other insurgent groups issued a statement Thursday warning that democracy was un-Islamic. Democracy could lead to passing un-Islamic laws, such as permitting homosexual marriage, if the majority or people agreed to it, the statement said.

Followed by the obligatory whistling past the graveyard by the American forces:

Wednesday's attack in the northern city of Mosul exhibited a coordination rarely seen among Iraq's insurgents. The violence began with a massive truck bomb exploding just outside a U.S. checkpoint, followed by attacks by squads of 10-12 insurgents.

A Stryker vehicle reinforcing the Americans was hit by a roadside bomb and a second car bomb. U.S. forces then called in airstrikes by F-18 and F-16 fighter jets, which launched three Maverick missiles and conducted several strafing runs.

U.S. officials called the attack a sign of desperation ahead of the vote.

"The fact of the matter is we're keeping the insurgents off balance and they're reeling backward. They're trying to come at us and we're giving it right back," spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said.

"The terrorists are growing more desperate in their attempts to derail the elections and they're trying to put it all on the line and give it all they can."

Oh yeah, these guys are on the ropes all right. The more they butcher our troops, the more obvious their utter desperation. A couple more suicide bombings inside military bases and we'll have those insurgents waving the white flag, yessir.

Speaking of Babies...

Crybabies, that is. NTodd has a pithy take on the apparent conclusion to the Washington state governor's race.

Killing Babies

The next time you have an argument with a six-year-old (or his parents) about which politician kills babies, feel free to reference this article.

Or this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.
Or this one.

Tsunami Relief

Since our taxpayer dollars are better spent butchering uppity Iraqis who hate freedom, pry loose some disposable income and drop it where it'll do some good. Courtesy of the NY Times, contact and donate. Millions of people need our help.

Dear Dickhead Lawmakers...

... murder is already illegal, morons.
Today we have a story about a 22-year-old gangbanger and 18 fellow thugs who are going to be tried as terrorists because of a number of criminal acts. Not that I'm defending the murder of children, (though some might, as long as they're Iraqi children) robbing restaurants, shooting teenagers or firing randomly into crowds, but we used to call such acts "murder", "robbery", "attempted murder" and "crazy as a snake's armpit" respectively, or, more generically, "crime", because not everything that makes you afraid is a terrorist act.

But that point has escaped the walnut-sized brainpans of lawmakers in 33 states. No, we need special statutes because killing frightened people is apparently worse than killing people who aren't afraid to die . Forgive me, or hell, don't forgive me, but this has "hate crime legislation" written all over it, and it's just as boneheaded as that idea. Everyone pay attention: murder, robbery and assault are already illegal (hence the monicker "crime"). Increasing penalties because of the ideas people have in their heads is thought policing.

I'm all for a distinction between malice aforethought and crimes of passion. Penalties for impulsive actions under stress should come with an option for amelioration, but please, people, if we're going to try citizens for conspiracy to:

“intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

then by God, I've got a long list of powerful people who work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to haul before a grand jury.

Look, America. I've been patient, but this is it. Don't make me stop this country and come back there.

Disaster Update

With the additional $20 million offered by the US Government, our Disaster Relief movie can star Angelina Jolie AND Halle Berry, and even have a Jodie Foster cameo appearance!

Simple Choice

The USA has a simple choice: send aid to nine countries with tens of thousands dead, or hire ONE of these actresses to make ONE movie:

These seven actresses earn $14 million-$15 million per movie: Drew Barrymore, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie and Jodie Foster.

Yup, $165 million PER DAY to occupy Iraq, $40 million to throw a Bush Inaugural, but $15 million to split between nine countries suffering one of the worst natural diasters in a decade. If you're not vomiting, you must be a compassionate conservative.

Opportunity

Imagine this:

"My fellow Americans, two days ago an earthquake, followed by tsunamis, devasted the shorelines of nine nations and killed at least 30,000 people. Tonight, our Muslim brethren are suffering, but because of our commitment in Iraq, it is difficult for us to respond as we should. Therefore, I am ordering an immediate drawdown of troops in the Iraqi theatre and committing our resources where they will do the most good. There is no organization on Earth more accomplished at logistics than the United States military, and the problem of relief to these millions of disaster victims is a problem of logistics. I call on all other nations to help us in this great effort to rescue the imperiled, comfort the wounded, and reverently bury the dead. What the rest of the world supplies, we pledge to deliver, and I ask all Americans to examine whether they can make the sacrifice to lend their skills, their time, their wealth and their compassion to this mobilization. Let us show all nations that no one who suffers is ever alone as long as America is in the world. Thank you, my friends, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America."

Only White People Matter

Nine countries struck by killer tsunamis in southeast Asia, tens of thousands dead, and the New York Post puts two distressed British tourists on its front page to symbolize all the suffering and death of the wogs.

Pop Quiz

Quick! What's wrong with this sentence:

It's time to SUPPORT the Christmas holiday across America, which over 96 percent of Americans celebrate.

Theatre of the Absurd

Last night I went to Rockefeller Center in New York City to see the Christmas tree, and was startled and somewhat disgusted by the presence of armored police officers carrying assault weapons wandering the crowd, but not for the reasons you might immediately assume.

I have no problems with New York's finest. They've always been there when I needed them, and seemed genuinely interested in repairing a situation gone awry, usually with the least fuss. My distress stems from the difficulty in imagining what exactly these police were prepared for.

I'll digress for a moment to describe another situation in order to expand the point. Recently, I was in Dulles airport outside of Washington DC airport during a security gate closure after a businessman rushed through a metal detector. While the situation was sorted out, thousands of people filled the terminal as the security line backed up to the street.

Last winter, I had to alert TSA personnel twice to get them to do something about an abandoned bag in the middle of the Albany Airport ticket concource.

Recently, vague information of a threat against the Citicorp building in New York City led to all visitors putting their bags on an x-ray belt -- but not walking through a metal detector or being searched, not even to the extent of removing their coats.

A couple of weeks ago, a test of the new corporate welfare -- ahem -- "missile defense" system was postponed because it was cloudy that day.

All this by way of saying, who are we kidding? Examining the recent tactics of the enemies of the United States, we see two primary modes of attack:

1) Fly a plane into a building.
2) Detonate an explosive concealed in one's clothing.

So, in review, let's take each situation in turn:

Paramilitary police in NYC:

What's a cop with an assault weapon and body armor going to do to protect the public against
a) a plane flying into a building, or
b) a suicide bomber, besides

a) nothing and
b) nothing?

Albany Airport:
A bag rests abandoned in a concourse for 10 minutes after two warnings from a concerned passenger before the TSA cares? Did the soldiers (assault weapons, camo) at the upstairs security check help in the least? What would they have done with their heavy armament had the bag turned out to be a weapon?

Dulles Airport:
Who besides me was looking at a crowd of thousands of vulnerable people packed into a tight area that has no security checks on entry, with an easily repeatable method of reproducing the situation?

Citicorp:
Do I need to go into this one? Check the bags but not the people? Why not put a sign out front with instructions on bypassing security checks?

Missile Defense:
I hope Kim Jong Il doesn't get the Weather Channel.

"Security" in this country is an expensive joke. This is not an argument for more security, but for less. Certain minimum standards are fine to maintain, but it's a lack of imagination that made the United States vulnerable to attack on September 11, 2001, and it's a lack of imagination that's leaving Americans exposed worldwide.

Security measures as practiced in the USA are tableaus in a theatre of the absurd, designed to scare the bejeesus out of the populace while doing absolutely nothing to make them safer.

The only way to be truly safe is to make people not want to attack you. And you don't approach that goal by occupying other countries, alienating allies, or, at the root, ignoring inconvenient reality.

Last night a man walked by one of the assault police and said, "Glad to see you guys out here tonight," in a tone that indicated he felt safer.

I had the sensation that any minute I'd turn a corner and find painted backdrops and a crew surprised in the act of setting up the next comforting absurdity. People are often accused of fighting the last war, of protecting yesterday's vulnerabilty -- we're not even doing that.

The NYC police are waiting for terrorists to make a frontal ground assault on the city, the TSA is leaving notes in a tiny minority of checked luggage to prove their diligence, Citicorp security is playing with their new detector toy and the Pentagon is dumping money into a project that will never, ever, be used, and will never, ever, do anything but reveal exactly how we should be attacked.

I propose that the Bush Administration launch a new faith-based initiative to have all Americans pray for safety. It'll be at least as effective as everything else the country is doing, and probably just as comforting to, at minumum, the 59 million people who thought Bush and his cronies needed time to finish off -- er -- finish the job.

Debased Medal

Once, you had to know a few wise guys and sing in Las Vegas for a couple of decades to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the United States can confer on a civilian.

Now it's merely necessary to fabricate intelligence (George "Slam Dunk" Tenet), complete fuck up an occupation (Paul "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Iraqi Army") Bremer, or go to war with the army you have like a good, silent general (Tommy "I'll Watch My Unarmored Troops Get Massacred As Long As You Don't Fire Me" Franks) to receive the trinket, which, hereinafter, Boring Diatribe will refer to as "The Bush Loyalist Medal".

What's a Banana Republic without a whole Special Olympics worth of medals strewn among the meat-packing glitterati? The Maximum Leader should award himself a few medals, and since he's the C-in-C, a chest full of happily clanking hardware both military and civilian would not be amiss.

If any of our readers are tapped for the "honor" (although reading this blog probably just disqualified you) we advise you to the hock the bauble and buy a soldier a bulletproof vest. Maybe you'll have enough left over to buy the bar of soap you'll need after the ceremony.

Hugging the Horse

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is regarded as one of the finest minds Europe has ever produced. Plagued by a family history of mental disease, ill health, and possibly by advanced syphilis, the philosopher who produced the towering works Beyond Good and Evil, On The Genealogy of Morals, The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Ecce Homo, The Case of Wagner, and Nietzsche Contra Wagner between 1886 and 1888, suffered a complete nervous collapse in 1889 at the sight of a coachman whipping a horse in Turin, Italy. Found weeping and embracing the animal, Nietzsche spent the last decade of his life in an asylum and in his family's care, a brain once like a bright scalpel collapsing into utter ruin at the stroke of an instant.

Which brings us to William Safire today.

Today, as is his increasingly disturbing wont, Safire wandered off the grounds and into the Hundred-Acre-Wood surrounding what we in the reality-based community refer to as "reality". Out in the wilderness, Bill found this revelation of an alternate history where the United States didn't invade Iraq:

Dissolve to a scene in a Tikrit palace where Saddam lays out his plan to (a) amass billions through a U.N. oil-for-food scam and his secret oil pipeline to Syria,

Which would have taken (a) decades Saddam didn't have (mortal as he is) and (b) a pipeline that didn't exist

(b) increase contacts with Al Qaeda,

Who hated him and would have danced with joy to his secular leadership ended... oh wait, that happened, didn't it?

(c) take leadership of the Arab world by developing W.M.D. or pretending to have them already

Because, clearly, THAT worked for 10 years in the 1990s

, and (d) openly challenging Bush.

Yeah, well, he did that. Sort of.

Agree with him or not, once you could count on Safire for a well-reasoned argument, rather than portraits of a fantasy land where he wasn't dead wrong for four solid years on politics. It's a shame to watch a fine mind disintegrate so publicly into a lumpy porridge of boot-licking cognitive dissonance, but a mercy he's retiring from his regular column. If only he had bowed out before the sand of the actual began running through his fingers.

Next time: Bill Safire and Dan Rather team up to fight crime!

Nothing To Lose

In our ongoing series entitled, "What difference does it make?" and in our continuing effort to clue-in the clueless, memo to the Pentagon: You can't "shatter" what you don't have:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.

Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations.

Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.

Yeah, it's going to take a Department of Disinformation to make the world skeptical. Not finding any WMD's in Iraq must have been insufficient.

I hope the Defense of Disinformation will put a little (TM) next to its pronouncements so that we can tell the difference between their press releases and the plain old lies we get every day anyway.

Once, America had other ways to influence opinion abroad, like Doing Good (TM) and Leading By Example (TM). But I guess that didn't leave the world skeptical enough. Keep trying guys. I'm sure you'll get us to the point where I Can't Believe It's America (TM) will be the order the of day.

Besides Bush, Who Does?

Bush-hugging toady Senator John McCain bares a fang:

Dec. 13, 2004  |  PHOENIX (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsf(ailed), citing Rumsf(ailed)'s handling of the war in Iraq and the (Rums)failure to send more troops.

McCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were not a call for Rums(ailed)'s resignation, explaining that President Bush "can have the team that he wants around him."

"No matter how stupid, bloodthirsty and blinded by ideology they may be."

"I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops -- linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc.," said McCain, R-Ariz. "There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsf(ailed) on that issue."

"Since he's an idiot who thinks a small, lightly armed occupation force can keep a lid on 25 million poverty-stricken, heavily armed Arabs with nothing left to lose."

When asked if Rumsf(ailed) was a liability to the Bush administration, McCain responded: "The president can decide that, not me."

He's not a liability to the administration. He's a liability to the troops. Here's nickel kid. Go buy yourself some better armor.

Army Invoice

I think this privatization of the military might be going a little too far. Here's your bill, soldier. Sorry about the arm.

(I can't believe I'm having to post another article like this. Then again, you'd also think my wellspring of incredulity would be dry by now.)

WASHINGTON -- Specialist Robert Loria of Middletown lost his arm in Iraq, but instead of a farewell paycheck from the U.S. Army he got a bill for nearly $1,800.

On Friday a platoon of New York lawmakers came to his rescue.

Loria found himself stuck in Fort Hood Texas this week when Army officials claimed he owed them money for travel expenses to a hospital and lost equipment.

Several lawmakers _ Rep. Maurice Hinchey and Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton _ interceded on behalf of the 27-year-old veteran after his irate wife, Christine Loria, told the Times-Herald Record of Middletown about the problem.

Loria was wounded in February. But as he was about to leave the Army this month, officials told him he had been overpaid for his time as a patient at a military hospital in the Washington area, and claimed he still owed money for travel between the hospital and Fort Hood, and $310 for items not found in his returned equipment.

Instead of a check for nearly $4,500, Loria was told he had to pay nearly $1,800.

Notice how it was Democrats fixing this problem. The real question is: Why should they have to?

Homeland Insecurity - Part 4

So, Bernard Kerik withdraws from his nomination as the Homeland Security Poobah, and everybody wants to natter on about why that was necessary, and how we're all going to move on from this unfortunate episode.

Here at Boring Diatribe, we receive the news and tedious commentary with a protracted and heartfelt yawn. Paying attention to who's running Homeland Security is like getting worked up about the new maitre 'd on the Titanic. Really, what difference does it make who's running the awful show? The job requirements of the next chieftan of Homeland Security are pretty simple:

1) Scare the shit out of Americans.
2) Not so much that they question Our Rulers.

See? Easy.
What difference does it make what jackal they prop up in front of the cameras to tell us how well the Maximum Leader is protecting us? They might as well hire someone photogenic since we'll have to look at the asshole every time there's a scandal the media can't be paid off to ignore. There's got to be one or two actors who haven't entered politics, yet. I'm sure they'd like to put down the dishrag and take a turn at the podium.

Fiddle on, America.

The Bush Religion

Every now and then there's speculation (since he doesn't actually go to church) about George W. Bush's religious convictions. Sure, he's "saved", but what exactly does that mean? Here at Boring Diatribe, our crack team of investigative reporters thinks they have the answer. Given the recent noises from Bush and his sect about passing on the favor and "saving" Social Security, it's pretty clear that Bush is a Fundamentalist Mormon:

If the 9,000 members of a polygamous Mormon sect in south-west Utah felt comfortable borrowing from their local bank like there was no tomorrow, it was because, in their minds, that was precisely the case. The world, they had been told, was coming to an end.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gladly used high-interest funds to finance suspect business ventures. There was the water melon farm on which not a single water melon was planted, and plans to convert old military barracks into homes fell through when they found lead paint and asbestos inside. Now, though, the tap has been turned off. After years of obliging the sect, the local Bank of Ephraim has been forced to shut down after state regulators found it could no longer handle all the loans it had extended.

If you're convinced the Apocalypse is imminent, and, in fact, you're in a position to hurry along the End Times, there's really not too many worries about paying back $2 trillion in bad debt to finance the Rapture party for you and your friends. Although it seems like things would go a bit smoother if they'd just get Jesus hauling ass back to this mortal coil to gesture all the uppity towelheads into the Lake of Fire.

Here's hoping Bush and friends are correct on every count. Bring on the Rapture, gang. Let's get all you irresponsible sanctimonious creeps sucked into Heaven so the rest of us can get on with taking care of the Earth.

How to destroy Social Security

As what passes for the staff economist at Boring Diatribe, I've been asked to comment on the Social Security Destruction and Embezzlement proposal (AKA Privatization).

Now as it happens, Paul Krugman, a gifted economist and editorialist at the NY Times has already done so at the link provided in this posts title.

Once you realize that privatization really means government borrowing to speculate on stocks, it doesn't sound too responsible, does it? But the details make it considerably worse.

First, financial markets would, correctly, treat the reality of huge deficits today as a much more important indicator of the government's fiscal health than the mere promise that government could save money by cutting benefits in the distant future.

After all, a government bond is a legally binding promise to pay, while a benefits formula that supposedly cuts costs 40 years from now is nothing more than a suggestion to future Congresses. Social Security rules aren't immutable: in the past, Congress has changed things like the retirement age and the tax treatment of benefits. If a privatization plan passed in 2005 called for steep benefit cuts in 2045, what are the odds that those cuts would really happen?

Second, a system of personal accounts, even though it would mainly be an indirect way for the government to speculate in the stock market, would pay huge brokerage fees. Of course, from Wall Street's point of view that's a benefit, not a cost.

There is, by the way, a precedent for Bush-style privatization. One major reason for Argentina's rapid debt buildup in the 1990's was a pension reform involving a switch to individual accounts - a switch that President Carlos Menem, like President Bush, decided to finance with borrowing rather than taxes. So Mr. Bush intends to emulate a plan that helped set the stage for Argentina's economic crisis.

Ah yes, the Argentina plan. I have used this metaphor for the current administration in the past. They complain about Tax and Spend practitioners (what I like to call the Great Btritain model) but employ the BORROW AND SPEND model - patterned after the economic and political success of Argentina.

But just so we're clear here, the Social Security destruction plan involves incurring a stunning amount of debt, and then placing an irresponsibly large bet on the markets.

On the plus side it will be a windfall for well connected fund managers and investment advisors to whom Bush hands out the spoils of this victory over common sense and rational economics. Using retirements funds, and the lucrative management thereof, as a form of patronage is nothing new for Bush however, as it was one of the most successfull ways he robbed the citizens of Texas on behalf of his cronies. Now he can duplicate that important success at the federal level, where he has already developed other patronage tools, like war profiteering, and targeted tax breaks into a robber-baron-enriching art form.

Hopefully 4 more years of this sort of greedy, evil, misgovernance will cause a backlash among the electorate, and lead to the election of more enlightened officials.

If it does not, get used to living in North Argentina.

For Their Own Good

Guerrilla News has published an article about new Iraq patent law ordered by the Coalition Provisional Authority. The law remains binding until such time as a new Iraqi government repeals it.

Excerpts:

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed, agricultural experimentation, and the unrestricted exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of Iraq’s cultivation practices. All this is rendered illegal by the new law. The seeds that farmers are now allowed to plant—“protected” crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction—will be the property of the corporations.

. . . . .

The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow Chemical—the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe. Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these companies to establish operations in Iraq, a condition that the new law has achieved. Taking over the first step in the food chain is the next corporate move.

America, R.I.P.

I had 6 days in Las Vegas, during which my access to the Internet was intermittent, and my schedule was packed with technical classes, mostly as a student but for the one course I taught. Also, I didn't read any newspapers, watch any TV, or read any blogs, and found myself more blissful for my ignorance. Through this experiment, I came to understand the red state of mind. The slots are spinning, Rita Rudner's on the big monitor, the cocktail waitresses are wearing short skirts -- what's not to like? For this week, immersed within amazingly geeky tech issues, I could understand how many Americans are going through their lives, focused on their personal affairs, having fun, furthering their careers, and regarding politics as a distasteful, irrelevant sideshow to their lives. God knows, this attitude is seductive. I've been happier this past week nattering on about programming and writing code than I can remember being for four years.

Before the election, a friend declared his intention, if Bush was elected, to "watch out for me and mine", with the implication that the rest of the nation could go to hell as far as he was concerned, and deserve whatever happened to it. I'm starting to understand that attitude, especially when I see this news:

WASHINGTON - Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government says.

Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.
...
Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court."

Leon asked whether a detention based solely on evidence gathered by torture would be illegal, because "torture is illegal. We all know that."

Boyle replied that if the military's combatant status review tribunals "determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them from relying on it."

I write about torture often because I find the subject morally unambiguous. Comments on this post may avoid the hackneyed "but if you have the guy who knows where the nuclear time-bomb is..." Spare me. Spare all of us this ridiculous, Hollywood-induced illusory scenario. Torture is evil. We will "win" nothing through its use, except the contempt of civilized peoples. Meanwhile, the Oligarchy continually argues for its use. Sometimes subtly, sometimes explicitly, sometimes by becoming apologists for torturers.

We will become a mad, pariah nation on this course. A people capable of such heights of nobility and such base crimes will be wondered at as the bones and the blasted shell of what was once a great civilization are picked over by historians of curious character and strong stomachs.

It's not good to be back.

"I Keep Wondering If They'd Be Crazy Enough to Do It"

An excerpt from Baghdad Burning, the latest entry from a female blogger in Iraq:

The situation in Falloojeh is worse than anyone can possibly describe. It has turned into one of those cities you see in your darkest nightmares- broken streets strewn with corpses, crumbling houses and fallen mosques... The worst part is that for the last couple of weeks we've been hearing about the use of chemical weapons inside Falloojeh by the Americans. Today we heard that the delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Health isn't being allowed into the city, for some reason.

I don't know about the chemical weapons. It's not that I think the American military is above the use of chemical weapons, it's just that I keep wondering if they'd be crazy enough to do it. I keep having flashbacks of that video they showed on tv, the mosque and all the corpses. There was one brief video that showed the same mosque a day before, strewn with many of the same bodies- but some of them were alive. In that video, there's this old man leaning against the wall and there was blood running out of his eyes- almost like he was crying tears of blood. What 'conventional' weaponry makes the eyes bleed? They say that a morgue in Baghdad has received the corpses of citizens in Falloojeh who have died under seemingly mysterious conditions.