Random News & Views Roundup

- Shorter right-wing conspiracy nutbars: 'Look! It's a dead guy with no dust! It's staged, I tell ya. Staged! Oh. Wait. The caption says he just fell down. Well, I don't care. I still say it's staged. Look at his hat! And the New York Times sucks! And they're traitors and they're libruls and...what? The guy who took that picture is a Pulitzer prize winner? I don't care. That's a librul prize - obviously! He's a stager! They're all stagers, I tell ya. Me? Take pictures in a war zone? Are you fucking kidding me?? I've got more faux photos to examine!'

(Apparently, 'Observations of the World from the Heart of Jesusland!' are not quite all they're made out to be.)

- Switching gears, visit Damnit Janet's new blog, Peace Gone Wild. That's one woman who puts her butt on the line a lot to protest the madness of war. Give her your love. (To my trolls and various dissenters: you stay right here and bug me. She just started her blog and doesn't need you guys over there right now. Let her have a bit of online peace for a while! If and when you do go over there, be prepared to get your butts kicked - in a non-violent way, of course. Janet's no wallflower, believe me.)

- Jimmy Breslin: 'In case we all forgot, Americans are still dying in Iraq'

- Uri Avnery: The Junkies of War

- Well, you know you just have to keep reading a piece written by a former US marine soldier that starts like this:

The mounting revelations of war crimes in Iraq have ripped the mask of democracy and nation-building off of a fatigued and wearied Uncle Sam, revealing the true face of U.S. imperialism. At least thirty U.S. servicemen are being prosecuted or are under investigation for the murder of Iraqi civilians. Twenty-one year old Steven Green, who served in the 502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged with the gang rape and murder of a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl in Al-Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.

Smith's insights (despite his misguided views about so-called 'liberal' myths) into basic training and the true culture of the military should be required reading for anyone who still believes the 'few bad apples' line or denies the fact that America is nothing but an imperialist country. The picture he paints is as real as it gets.

- We must not forget the people in Darfur:

El Fasher, Sudan — A peace deal that was supposed to end the conflict in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region has brought anything but peace, with fresh fighting displacing 50,000 people and July marking the deadliest month for aid workers since the conflict began.

Eight Sudanese humanitarian workers were killed last month along with countless civilians, part of increasing violence that has pitted rebel factions against each other since a May 5 peace deal was signed in Nigeria between the government and the main rebel group.

Aid groups, the United Nations and beleaguered African Union peacekeepers say rebel factions are seeking to gain advantage before peace upsets a status quo in a region where more than 2 million already had fled their homes.

One million people also rely on food aid because their fields have been razed or they're too afraid to go out to farm. More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur since ethnic African tribes rose in revolt against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003.

- Newsflash: Alan Dershowitz is still a wanker.