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Tuesday, November 12, 2002 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The tom-toms keep beating revenge; and the fact that most of the world is opposed to our war seems only to bring hectic roses to the cheeks of the Bush administration... Their hearts are plainly elsewhere, making money, far from our mock Roman temples, while we, alas, are left only with their heads, dreaming of war, preferably against weak peripheral states."
- - Gore Vidal
RHINO HERE:
Gore Vidal is one of America's most controversial writers and a ferocious critic of shrub & company. Award-winning novelist & playwright, He now lives in Italy & has written a new book, "The Last Empire", in which he argues that Americans have no idea of the extent of their government's mischief.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-2489306-4480705
Last month the London Observer published a 7000 word polemic by Vidal titled 'The Enemy Within', in which he argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.
You'll find links to the entire text of "The Enemy Within" below, and to a shorter London Guardian article which summarizes the piece.
8:14:47 AM 
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Meanwhile, Blogging is spreading through the culture from profession to profession. There's even a Snoop Doggy Blog for the rap scene. And now come law blogs. http://www.law.com is currently running a series on blogging including the three informative articles excerpted below:
FROM 'LAW TECHNOLOGY NEWS'
"How I Learned to Love the Blog"
Are you blogging yet? If you're not, it's a good bet you will be soon. Blogs may well be a critical step forward in enterprisewide attempts at effective knowledge management. To figure out whether blogs really belong on your radar, it's important to understand what they are, how they're different than existing tools and what options you have for using them in your firm...
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1032128826766
FROM 'THE AMERICAN LAWYER'
"A Discreet Bullhorn"
Denise Howell likes to think out loud. Every day the Los Angeles technology lawyer adds to her blog, commenting on and linking to articles that friends have written and recounting testimony from trials she's attended. In the process, she also has been promoting her law practice...
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1032128827879
FROM 'LAW TECHNOLOGY NEWS'
"To Blog or Not ..."
Blogs are touted as a Web publisher, a marketing tool, a collaborative platform and a knowledge management system. Sound too good to be true? Well, yes and no. It all depends on your expectations going in and the amount of time and effort you are willing to spend understanding the blog culture.
8:08:52 AM
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BY Sunder Katwala, GUARDIAN, Sunday October 27, 2002
... Vidal argues that the real motive for the Afghanistan war was to control the gateway to Eurasia and Central Asia's energy riches. He quotes extensively from a 1997 analysis of the region by Zgibniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviser to President Carter, in support of this theory. But, Vidal argues, US administrations, both Democrat and Republican, were aware that the American public would resist any war in Afghanistan without a truly massive and widely perceived external threat.
'Osama was chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long-contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan ... [ because ] the administration is convinced that Americans are so simple-minded that they can deal with no scenario more complex than the venerable, lone, crazed killer (this time with zombie helpers) who does evil just for the fun of it 'cause he hates us because we're rich 'n free 'n he's not.' Vidal also attacks the American media's failure to discuss 11 September and its consequences: 'Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.'
'It is an article of faith that there are no conspiracies in American life. Yet, a year or so ago, who would have thought that most of corporate America had been conspiring with accountants to cook their books since - well, at least the bright dawn of the era of Reagan and deregulation.' At the heart of the essay are questions about the events of 9/11 itself and the two hours after the planes were hijacked. Vidal writes that 'astonished military experts cannot fathom why the government's "automatic standard order of procedure in the event of a hijacking" was not followed'.
TO SEE THE ENTIRE GUARDIAN ARTICLE, GO TO:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,819931,00.html
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ).
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
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8:05:07 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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