Not for the humor impaired, this confidential brief (pdf format) to US president George W. Bush is filled with childish fun. The cover claims that it is by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but that's surely just part of the spoof.

It's all there. Just read it...

Basically, a bunch of US soldiers have been trading pictures of dead Iraqis for porn; they sent the pictures to a porn webmaster in exchange for access to his site, and the guy published the photos on nowthatsfuckedup.com .

The American Food and Drug Administration has recalled operational rations (MREs) donated by Britain to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The majority of the 400,000 rations donated by Britian, at a cost of millions of pounds, are set to be destroyed at a plant in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The move has infuriated aid workers who hasten to point out that "Under Nato, American soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the American South will see them go up in smoke because of FDA red tape madness."

Pretty disgusting to see that his schedule is not too busy to keep him from doing that. I hope that people noticed that and that it will appear on MediaMatters and places like that at least, and make the editorial pages of big newspapers tomorrow.

I just heard on the news that the US has freed about 1000 people from Abu Ghraib to help the negociations with the sunnis.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the fact that they just freed A THOUSAND prisoners for purely political reasons either shows that: 1) they were held for political reasons or 2) they were held arbitrarily for no good reason.

They've been around for 10 years and have covered almost all conflicts during that period, but now they need money to keep their staff and pay their bandwidth bills.

Please donate generously and keep encouraging them by visiting the site and telling family and friends about them.

Hurry up! Their pledge week ends soon and if they don't meet their objectives cuts will be made, or maybe they'll even close down.

More below the fold.

More below the fold.

A small quote from the interview under the fold, but please click on the link above and read the whole thing it's worth it.

Well, they have many sub-projects and one of them is Wikinews, news written in a collaborative manner and with a Neutral Point of View (NPOV).

"Like tax cuts, Social Security privatization was fundamentally about "starving the beast," circumscribing the powers of government. Connect pensions to the stock market, and any attempt to regulate pollution, raise the minimum wage, tax corporations, prevent them sending jobs oversees, etc etc etc would be denounced as threatening granny's <strike>private</strike> personal retirement account. Almost every aspect of a progressive agenda would be measured against the Dow Jones and found wanting. The R's would be practically assured of a permanent majority."

'The George W. Bush cemetary, where the soldiers he sent to unnecessary imperial wars are laid to rest.'

But who knows, maybe he'll actually get a street in San Francisco named after him. Heh.

My Stupid Blog

The current account deficit is a shared responsibility,? Snow said in prepared remarks for delivery to the Royal Institute of International Affairs [...]"

source

Words have meanings and emotional charges. When you replace them with bland words, you can often more easily do effective propaganda or avoid provoking as big a reaction from the opposition.

I recently saw on CNN something about Jeb Bush opened a "faith-based" prison in Florida. I'm sorry, but that's a religious prison, and there's a thing in the constitution about separation of church & state. Look into it, Mr. Governor.

I suggest:

• The Nation

• The Progressive

• Mother Jones

It shows, first, that US politics have a pretty big impact on the war (not doing what is best on the ground but what is best for politicians overseas); they were afraid to suffer too many casualties before the election.

Second: How convenient that all the media coverage is now over there in Iraq (where it also belongs, don't get me wrong) and that all the post-election madness and "problems" (fraud) are getting glanced over.

ACLU.org

NRDC.org

Please be generous the way you've been during the election. Civil society has a big role to play in how a country works, lets take that back from the fanatics.

If the government of the USA is not going to protect our environment anymore, then it's going to have to be groups like the excellent NRDC that will have to do it. Please consider joining, even if only with the lowest amount of donation (more if you can afford it). It's crucial.