Operation Distraction. 'According to press reports, the White House thinks Ashcroft made too much of Padilla, who has not been charged with a crime. The government attorneys apparently could not get... ' [kill your tv dot com]

Ashcroft's Lies. '' Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday overstated the potential threat posed by ''dirty bomb'' suspect Abdullah Al Muhajir, Bush administration and law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Ashcroft's remarks annoyed... [kill your tv dot com]

Whoa, what's this all about..... [The All Electric Media Weblog]

What does it mean for the Shrub to be ignorant of the existence of black people in Brazil?. Teresa on Making Light has posted the definitive rant on what's wrong with the Shrub asking if Brazil has black people. Beyond sniggering at yet another gaffe from the election-stealing idiot-savant presidente, Teresa tackles exactly what it means to not know that black people live in Brazil. Note: There's some indication that Bush never made this gaffe, as is reported in Washington Post.

Lay that aside for the moment. Let's go after this question systematically. At minimum, Bush is missing several centuries of the post-Columbus history of the New World. Within that, he's missing the history of the black Africans' emigration (kidnapping? diaspora?) to the New World. He can't know about the triangle trade, which means he has a defective grasp of early North American history, because the triangle trade was a big deal in Colonial times. He doesn't know anything about the history of Cuba, because if you know even a little about it, you'll stumble across the fact that there are blacks in Brazil. One somehow feels the Leader of the Free World ought to know something about Cuba, unless the title "Leader of the Free World" is now trading at par with"Holy Roman Emperor."

Next step: I think this also has to mean that Bush didn't know there are blacks in all the Latino countries in the Western Hemisphere. Now that he's been tipped off, he'll probably claim that he did too know that, but ... nope, can't. If he knew there were blacks in all the other countries, but he didn't know there were blacks in Brazil, he'd have to have thought Brazil was somehow an exception to the rule. But he can't have believed that. No sane person could. Brazil has the second-largest black population of any country in the world. (Nigeria's #1.) So: Bush can't have known there are black (mulato, actually) populations in every country in the Western Hemisphere. This is depressing when you consider that Latin America is supposedly his area of greatest expertise.

[Boing Boing Blog]

Wired News reports on Inappropriate Technology:

The irreverence was to be expected, given the event sponsors: webzine NTKnow, 'the weekly high-tech sarcastic update for the UK' and techno-art magazine Mute.

"We had twice as many people, and it was 10 times weirder than we expected," said pleased NTK co-editor Danny O'Brien. "It was like a big gathering of tribes—you had all these geek tribes that would never normally meet."

Among the eclectic mix of exhibitors and attendants were the Commodore 64 Underground, the Campaign for Digital Rights, Copenhagen Free University, Dorkbot London, The Register, Spamradio and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

[Boing Boing Blog]

US Soldier Caught in Florida Terrorism?. '' Jacksonville, Fla., police arrested a Fort Stewart soldier Saturday after finding him armed, wearing black clothes and leaving... [kill your tv dot com]

Doubts About Dirty Bomber. "British and European security officials are highly sceptical of American claims that the alleged 'dirty bomb' plotter, Abdullah... " [kill your tv dot com]

Who Needs Marx? Read the CIA.. ''The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $36,200.... [kill your tv dot com]

Antiquities Dealer Is Sentenced to Prison. Frederick Schultz was sentenced on Tuesday to 33 months in federal prison and fined $50,000 for his role in a conspiracy to sell antiquities stolen from Egypt. By Celestine Bohlen. [New York Times: Arts]

Stutterers' Words Flow More Easily on the Stage. A group of actors performed last weekend as part of the inaugural production of the Our Time Theater Company, a new troupe devoted to being "an artistic home for people who stutter." By Jesse Mckinley. [New York Times: Arts]

Is Jose Padilla also John Doe #2?. Read James Ridgeway's piece in the Village Voice Then read FuckedWorld.com Then read junkyardblog I know that many think this blog is a 'conspiracy website' which I think is... [kill your tv dot com]