Tens of thousands of anti-war protestors gathered in Rome on Saturday to protest against U.S. President George W. Bush, who was in the Italian capital on an official visit.
Organizers said some 150,000 people took part in “No Bush-No War” march but police put the number at 12,000.
The protest kicked off at 4:30 p.m. local time and wound its way from Piazza Repubblica near the Rome’s main train station to the famous square of Piazza Navona.
The march was organized by some 200 pacifist organizations ranging from trade unions and student groups to activists angry at the expansion of a U.S. military base in the northern city of Vicenza. [People’s Daily]
Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin
Hilton screamed
It’s almost like “Jesus wept,” the way the media are making another Anna Nicole’s Baby out of the preoccupations of Paris. I mean, honestly, you’d think she was being dragged off to be decapitated in the courthouse parking lot. Good theatre, no doubt. And it goes to show, no matter how much money you have, don’t bet it on the Powers doing paperwork for you.
Is there any hope out there that our entertainment – our diversions – will ever give us some relief from their unremitting pathos? Do they not realize there’s little reason for us to care more for their personal lives than they do for ours?
Let the word go forth from this time and blog: there’s a big difference between being someone I care about and merely playing one on TV.
waterboarding: better than nothing?
Not according to the CIA. They’ve got one hell of a torture. And they’ll probably get away with it.
Seriously, how can Shrub be so deluded as to think God sanctions his infernal miscreations?
3500+
Baghdad – Another U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the military said Thursday, pushing the four-year death toll for American forces to 3,501, according to an Associated Press tally.
The count includes 23 deaths in the first six days of June, an average of about four per day.
Words fail.
tancredo: the weakest link
So I was minding my own beeswax, reading my (May 31) Time magazine, when I came, without warning, upon 10 questions for Tom Tancredo. He’s the Republican who is building his mostly hopeless presidential campaign on the narrow backs of illegal immigrants. (I should be careful about saying it’s hopeless; I didn’t think Bush had much of a chance against Gore, and I was almost wrong.)
I was so flabbergasted by the abject stupidity of his answers to these questions, I’m a little annoyed with Time for killing trees to give Tancredo a chance to prove what a moron he is.
One answer jumped out at me so forcefully, I almost stopped a stranger passing by to say, “Look! Look at this answer! Can you believe it? This … oh gosh … this man is running for president! Of the whole country!”
Are you ready?
Question: What evidence would convince you that global warming is a serious threat to the planet?
Answer: I have no doubt that global warming exists. I just question the cause and what we can do to ameliorate it. But I wonder why the Sierra Club isn’t going crazy about the environmental aspects of massive immigration into the U.S. The fact is, Americans consume more energy than anyone else, so if a person moves here from another country, they automatically become bigger polluters.
No! No, Tancredo! Bad Tancredo! You should be running for mayor of Non Sequiturville, not president of the US.
We Americans don’t consume more energy because of where we live. We consume more energy because of how we live. Just because someone moves here, doesn’t mean they live like us, consume like us, waste like us.
I think The Gong Show would be a great model for the political process. If somebody says something this dumb, the people shouldn’t have to wait for the primaries — just gong his ass now, and send him home. At the very least, model it after Survivor. (More people watch that than vote in an election anyway.) That way, we could see somebody voted off the island every week.
the freedoms they’re fighting to protect
I guess we’ve all seen this in the news by now.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A military panel recommended that an Iraq war veteran who wore his uniform during an anti-war demonstration lose his honorable discharge status, brushing away his claims that he was exercising his right to free speech.
Don’t ever let them kid you, folks. There is no one in an American uniform actually fighting to protect our freedom, or for that matter to protect us from terr’r. They’re fighting to project megalomaniacal Power, and it’s authority must be respected.
oh well
I was just thinking, that Putin photo would’ve been funnier without the green brim on the beanie. Damn it, art is hard.
since when?
It seems ol Vlad The Propeller Putin is p-o’d at US over a planned missile defense system in Europe. Since when do we have a working missile defense system? Last time I checked, that stuff doesn’t work yet.
Talk about a tempest in a teapot. Putin’s threatening to vaporize millions of innocent people because he’s afraid of boogie man that doesn’t exist. He’s as crazy as the Shrub.
Why, you ask, do they call him Vlad the Propeller? Good question. I don’t know, but Shrub reportedly just calls him Beanie.
like a snowcone dropped on a sidewalk in august
the planet is so hosed.
he shoots, he scores
Uplifting story of an autistic high school b-ball player.
[Thanks, Cindy]
m i c c
Military Industrial Caffeine Complex – that's where I am today. I must confess.
I usually avoid the big chain java joint – Starbutts – for my daily infusion, but today it couldn't be helped. My usual coffeehouse has been closed a lot lately. A lot of small businesses around here commit suicide, de rigueur, and it has seemed quite depressed. But there is a sign in the window citing a death in the family. So maybe it's the other side of that coin.
Are those the coins that were his eyes? No no, that's not right.
… Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
I digress. My situation is that I'm camped out in Starbucks, famous for so many things. The McDonalds of liquid self-indulgence. Purveyor of the mediocre bean to the great bourgeoisie. They who played the big joke on their customers of hooking all their shops to T-mobile internet connections. Which means that only a small fraction of java jonesers can get online. Asshats.
Seriously, What's wrong with a simple cable or dsl connection and a decent modem/router setup?
So how am I blogging, you ask? Piggybacking off the wifi from my insurance agent's office next door. And feelin like a pirate.
Avast! … um …. Arrrrg!
practice makes perfect
Here’s something I’ll betcha the Shrub hasn’t carefully considered. The longer our troops stay in Iraq, the better the other guys get at killing off our young people.
As U.S. troops push more deeply into Baghdad and its volatile outskirts, Iraqi insurgents are using increasingly sophisticated and lethal means of attack, including bigger roadside bombs that are resulting in greater numbers of American fatalities relative to the number of wounded.
Insurgents are deploying huge, deeply buried munitions set up to protect their territory and mounting complex ambushes that demonstrate their ability to respond rapidly to U.S. tactics. A new counterinsurgency strategy has resulted in decreased civilian deaths in Baghdad but has placed thousands of additional American troops at greater risk in small outposts in the capital and other parts of the country. [The Washington Post]
Metaphor 