I read the news today, oh boy.

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

from the WaPo's SLATE's on-line news summary:
all major US newspapers surveyed note > that the U.S. is going to
begin evacuating citizens via a cruise ship to Cyprus. The LA [TIMES]
says that before they board citizens have to sign a contract promising
to pay the government back for the evacuation...

> Only the [Washington] Post and NY [TIMES] front a massacre in a town
just south of Baghdad in which gunmen moved through a Shiite-dominated
marketplace and killed about 50 people. "They did not spare anyone,"
said one local cop. "Not the children. Not the elderly. The Iraqi army
did not interfere." (Residents complained that nearby GIs didn't
intervene, either.) The LAT catches late-breaking word of another 45
people killed in a car bombing in another Shiite-dominated town just
south of Baghdad. Three GIs were also reported killed in separate
attacks.

> A piece inside the Post mentions in passing that an Iraqi official
said 628 people were killed in Baghdad last week, "a figure that far
exceeded the numbers previously suggested by news reports." The story
also details just how complete the breakdown has been in Baghdad the
last week: In some neighborhoods, people haven't been able to go out
and buy food. Meanwhile, some residents have reportedly "sold off
their furniture to buy AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition." In a day
of stiff competition, this is today's most sobering story.

> The NYT notices that followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr
boycotted the Iraqi parliament yesterday. "It's become obvious that
the occupation forces are responsible for the devastation taking place
in our country," said a legislator from Sadr's bloc. Sadr has been
threatening to attack U.S. forces as a solidarity move with Hezbollah.

> Only the [Wall Street] Journal seems to flag news that the Taliban
seized two towns in southern Afghanistan and "forced police and
government officials to flee." ...

> Another piece inside the Post says Justice Department investigators
backed up the claim by the FBI's highest-ranking Arabic speaker that
he was blacklisted after he complained of being cut out of
counterterrorism programs. <

from today's NYT: said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): >We will
stand with Israel because Israel is standing for American values as
well as Israeli ones.<

what values are those? does that includes the one about if someone
kidnaps or kills one of "ours" we kill or kidnap 20 to 50 of "theirs"?
the 25 eyes for an eye policy?

Meanwhile, the world is gearing up for the celebration of the 40th
anniversary of Israel's 6-day war. Aren't we glad that this
"blintzkrieg" solved all those problems in the Levant and the greater
Middle East?
--
Jim Devine

> It's good news week,
Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere,
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky,
It's good news week,
Someones found a way to give,
The rotting dead a will to live,
Go on and never die.

> Have you heard the news?
What did it say?
Who's won that race?
What's the weather like today? ...

> It's good news week,
Doctors finding many ways,
Of wrapping brains in metal trays,
To keep us from the heat....

> To keep us from the heat.

> To keep us from the heat. <

"Swan Dive" by Hed (Pe)

"You need a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.