Poem of the Day Dept.:

"Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur" by Lewis Carroll.

One of the most confusing, frustrating episodes heading into this election has been the assertion of Right-wing zealots that the TANG documents uncovered by CBS News are "forgeries"--an assertion repeated with such brutal, persistent force that they have not only deluded themselves (and their uninformed camp-followers) that they've proven the documents were forged but actually managed to corner and intimidate CBS and Dan "When Did They Cut Them Off and Do You Think They Can Ever Be Sewn Back On?" Rather into partially recanting . . . . . "TANG Typewriter Follies; Wingnuts Wrong" successfully refutes their claim to having proven anything at all.

"Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision." What Ben Franklin said (again).

NEO-CONNED is still another interesting and intelligent weblog covering the Bushies' follies, etc.

Conspiracy Reality Dept.:

"How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power ," from the U.K.'s Guardian Unlimited website (via truthout.org).

Among many other satirical images, the variation above of the Nation's famous cover image--originally from a 2000 issue--can be found at theBlatantTruth.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

"Shark's Teeth" by Kay Ryan, at Poetry's website.

"Here's how it works: When you put a sign on the freeway people will read it until someone takes it down. Depending on its size, content and placement it can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people." Freewayblogger.com. Practical, yes?

"Rewriting the Koran" by Stephen Schwartz at the Weekly Standard's website.

You Are Now Entering the Twilight Zone Dept.:

Jesus. When did this happen? How did I miss it?

You can now purchase your very own pliable action-figure . . . granted, it's not as good as the real sociopathic clown-puppet Dick Cheney has, but ordinary working people in America may not care to pay the extortionate price of such a luxury these days.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists lists Iraq as the most dangerous place in the world to cover the news." Just one of the reasons--along with the fear of being called "unpatriotic," and more--given for why American journalists failed to report significantly on the torture of prisoners in Iraq until long after the first signs of something being amiss broke the surface. "Missed Signals" by Sherry Ricchiardi at AJR's website.

Let's not forget history. It's quite possible that it will happen again in a month. Then what? Do we Americans simply "accept" things and shut up and sit back and smile and marvel at how well the system works? Do we "let it go" again? After the Bushies dropped the ball on the terrorists threats that were carried out on September 11, 2001? How well have we survived, as one of the major American news weeklies proclaimed we would on its cover during the fracas of the 2000 Presidential elections?

"The U.S. occupation of Iraq is the cause of, not the solution to, the violence and the mounting deaths that followed the invasion." From "War on Iraq: Top 10 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq," which is about as good a summary of the obvious as I've seen so far.

Today, by the way, marks the birthday of Miguel de Cervantes.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

In the wake of that last post, W. S. Merwin's bleak "When the War Is Over," from his collection The Lice, seems appropriate:

When the war is over
We will be proud of course the air will be
Good for breathing at last
The water will have been improved the salmon
And the silence of heaven will migrate more perfectly
The dead will think the living are worth it we will know
Who we are
And we will all enlist again

If the Bushies get their way, will the war ever be over?

"Blair: WMD call was wrong." Everything's just fine and dandy in the end, and the world is a better place . . . . After the fact displays of morality don't wash away the dead and dying, the thousands of people who would still be alive had Saddam been left in place with more carefully implemented economic sanctions, U.N. inspections, and diplomatic and political pressure. And, with Saddam's al Qaeda "connections" utterly disproven and no big bad bombs to be found, Blair's claim about being concerned about U.K. security--as with the Bushies' about U.S. security--being improved is either the sincere belief of a delusional madman or a plain old lie. Iraq is now a gigantic breeding ground for armed religious fanaticism--something it could never have been under Saddam's oppressive, totalitarian but nonetheless secular and contained government.

"In the foreseeable future, I think all statements, events and appearances arising from this Administration should be exclusively covered by 'The Medical Channel' and filed under schizophrenia." Thus M. Kane Jeeves a.k.a. Ed Naha in "21st Century Schizoid Men."