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Saturday, August 12, 2006 |
Through the Looking Glass
'What sort of things do YOU remember best?' Alice ventured to ask.
'Oh, things that happened the week after next,' the Queen replied in a careless tone. 'For instance, now,' she went on, sticking a large piece of plaster on her finger as she spoke, 'there's the King's Messenger. He's in prison now, being punished: and the trial doesn't even begin till next Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of all.'
'Suppose he never commits the crime?' said Alice.
'That would be all the better, wouldn't it?' the Queen said, as she bound the plaster round her finger with a bit of ribbon.
Alice felt there was no denying THAT. 'Of course it would be all the better,' she said: 'but it wouldn't be all the better his being punished.'
'You're wrong THERE, at any rate,' said the Queen: 'were YOU ever punished?'
'Only for faults,' said Alice.
'And you were all the better for it, I know!' the Queen said triumphantly.
'Yes, but then I HAD done the things I was punished for,' said Alice: 'that makes all the difference.'
'But if you HADN'T done them,' the Queen said, 'that would have been better still; better, and better, and better!' Her voice went higher with each 'better,' till it got quite to a squeak at last.
Alice was just beginning to say 'There's a mistake somewhere -', when the Queen began screaming so loud that she had to leave the sentence unfinished.
2:09:32 PM 
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Reuters: "Rising Israeli casualties and constant Hizbollah rocket attacks have sharply eroded public support in Israel for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defence minister, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
Public support for Defence Minister Amir Peretz fell from 65 percent to 37 percent, the survey showed."
American taxpayers' money is used to bomb Lebanese women and children.
TheNation: "While the Bush Administration calls for the immediate disbanding of what it has labeled 'private' and 'illegal' militias in Lebanon and Iraq, it is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its own global private mercenary army tasked with protecting US officials and institutions overseas. The secretive program, which spans at least twenty-seven countries, has been an incredible jackpot for one heavily Republican-connected firm in particular: Blackwater USA. Government records recently obtained by The Nation reveal that the Bush Administration has paid Blackwater more than $320 million since June 2004 to provide 'diplomatic security' services globally. The massive contract is the largest known to have been awarded to Blackwater to date and reveals how the Administration has elevated a once-fledgling security firm into a major profiteer in the 'war on terror'."
Merip: "Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi'i movement whose militia is fighting the Israeli army in south Lebanon, has been cast misleadingly in much media coverage of the ongoing war. Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political party that is a powerful actor in Lebanese politics and a provider of important social services. Not a creature of Iranian and Syrian sponsorship, Hizballah arose to battle Israel's occupation of south Lebanon from 1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon's historically disenfranchised Shi'i Muslim community. While it has many political opponents in Lebanon, Hizballah is very much of Lebanon - a fact that Israel's military campaign is highlighting."
11:11:07 AM
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Guardian: "A police chief has apologised after he was caught on video laughing about a female lawyer who was shot in the head at a protest demonstration by his officers.
On a training video filmed the following morning and released to the media this week, Major John Brooks of the Broward County Sheriff's Department tells cheering colleagues how proud he was of their performance during the incident. 'How about yesterday, huh?' he said. 'I was so pumped up about how good you guys were.'
Amid laughter, another officer is seen imitating the moment Ms Ritter, 45, was hit. Jabbing a finger to his forehead, the sergeant says, 'the lady in the red dress, I don't know who got her but it went right through the sign and hit her smack dab in the middle of her head'."
Of course, don't be fooled by the apology, that was only offered after the video became public. In so many incidents there are no videos and no apologies follow.
NYTimes: "The two top officials of Counterintelligence Field Activity at the Defense Department resigned this week amid investigations into their agency's classified contracts with a businessman who has pleaded guilty to bribing department officials and Representative Randy Cunningham."
10:55:02 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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