Seems to me that massive, peaceful, beautiful demo accomplished a number of things. Hope CSPAN re-runs its four hours of unfiltered coverage; it was the next best thing to being there.
CBS news piece on demonstrating family members of soldiers killed in Iraq (and the thousand flag-draped coffins) was unusually good for Big Media.
Great message out, great uplift inside the "Bush out" base... and very little of the more vacuous direct action confrontations that the Perlstein article focused on. The rest of the week might feature some sporadic clashes, but the big risk was that stuff clouding the big march -- and it didn't happen.
McDuff, thanks for the link to the Foreign Affairs article. I had no idea Colin P. was helping flack the hideous National Security Strategy. I'd been expecting him to leave the administration if the Bush admin got a second run, before the madness of the NSS takes the world apart. But this is Kool-Aid drinking of the first order.
The abstract makes me queasy, it sounds so much like Stalin-era praise of The Glorious Leader:
George W. Bush's vision -- enshrined in his 2002 National Security Strategy -- is far broader and deeper than that. The president has promoted bold and effective policies to combat terrorism, intervened decisively to prevent regional conflicts, and embraced other major powers such as Russia, China, and India.
Think I'll wait to read the whole thing until I feel a little stronger.
Claude Muncey, thank you for lifting this discussion from the ahistorical, spin/counterspin level to which it so often sinks. Kevin Drum could benefit from reading your comment.
Congressional Representatives who voted against a bill requiring an audit trail
There has been no vote, or even committee hearings, on Rush Holt's H.R. 2239, which requires that the new electronic voting systems provide a paper audit trail.
You can help get it moving by urging your Rep. to become a co-sponsor; only 45 have. Letters to the editor urging others to write are also helpful. Short and sweet is best; protecting democracy this simply is common sense to most people.
So much so that a member of Congress ought to have some explaining to do if he or she won't support it... Start offering them the opportunity to protect your right to vote today. more info on the bill
Subsequent reporting by the Guardian on a staff revolt at the National Museum backs up the idea, which I gather comes across in the Cruikshank report, that the director Dony George misled reporters originally. The staff say he gave them weapons and told them to fire on the Americans:
Staff revolt at Baghdad museum
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 4 |
| 2003 | 2 |
Total: 6 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by Nell Lancaster:
Show all comments by Nell Lancaster.