He was talking about When the Levees Broke, his forthcoming documentary about Hurricane Katrina, and Condoleezza Rice. He was cracking up, giggling and cackling—in fact, caggling.

Mr. Lee recalled the story of a shopper who approached Ms. Rice at the pricey Ferragamo shoe store on Fifth Avenue during Katrina and reportedly shouted “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” before the Secret Service physically removed her.

Mr. Lee picked up The Observer’s tape recorder and held it close in front of his face. “To the lady that got in Ms. Rice’s face in the store before you got pulled off by Secret Service,” he said.

“If you read this article, please contact The New York Observer because we’re trying to find you for the documentary we’re doing on Hurricane Katrina.” Caggle, caggle. “IF you are still alive, that is.

“Also, to the person that said ‘Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney.’ If you are still alive, we’d like to contact you too. If you are still on our planet, if you are still walking amongst us.

"If you get this down in Guantánamo with the other jailed peace activists and suspected Al Qaeda agents who have been jailed for five years and not charged with anything, please get a message to me! We want to know what prompted you to tell Mr. Cheney to go fuck himself! Thank you.”   more »

America - the star-spangled fantasyland of the fake and home of the bogus. US politicians aim for rugged, macho images because insecure voters want to feel that real men are in charge. Fake masculine posturing seems to be the style of the current cowboy regime.

In America, the excitement about Dick Cheney's shooting accident is over. There are no more talkshow debates about why he took so long to make a statement, and no more news reports about his 78-year-old victim.

Even the delicious contrast between the vice-president's bravery in the face of small birds and the deferments he took to keep from going to Vietnam no longer raises eyebrows.

Yet the shrewdest comment I heard on the incident was rarely touched on. What did the vice-president think he was doing, inquired a serious hunter?

Real men got up early and went into the countryside hunting wild quail alone with their dog. Going in groups to a farm to shoot specially bred birds was for sissies.

It wasn't Cheney's involvement in masculine pursuits that was noteworthy; it was that the mode of masculinity on show was bogus.   more »

My point is, if there is a concerted effort by high-ranking officials of the Bush administration to portray things in Iraq as going well, then why are there permanent bases being constructed in Iraq?

And in Iraq, the reality is that people like Pace, Rice, Cheney and their ever-eloquent front man aren't telling the American public about their true plans for Iraq.

This media smokescreen from the likes of Pace, Rice and even "sharp-shooter" Cheney, who recently said things in Iraq are "improving steadily," conveniently leads the American people toward believing there will eventually be a withdrawal of American soldiers.

But the problem with smokescreens is that pesky thing called "reality."

One example that provides some insight into their agenda is the US "Embassy" which is under construction in the infamous "Green Zone."

As you read this, a controversial Kuwait-based construction firm is building a $592 million US embassy in Baghdad. When the dust settles, this compound will be the largest and most secure diplomatic compound in the world.   more »

The legislature in South Dakota voted to outlaw abortion except in cases where the mother’s life was endangered.

Even rape, incest, and fetal abnormality will no longer be legally justified reasons for abortion. Republican State Senator Bill Napoli described the only instance when he thought abortion would be justifiable.

A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin.

She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated.

I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Napoli has some very strange fantasies. Hide your daughter if you see him coming. In South Dakota, rape victims who aren’t pious or saving themselves for marriage are just out of luck.   more »

Blair wanted, from the beginning, to further Britain’s imperial ambitions, a strategy that predates the US neo-conservative’s rise to power.

This strategy of interventionism was progressively entrenched by a series of military campaigns: the four days of air strikes against Iraq in December 1998 (Operation Desert Fox); the crusade against Yugoslavia in 1999; and the dispatch of British troops to the African state of Sierra Leone the following year.

In May 1999, a joint memo produced by Robin Cook and George Robertson – the foreign and defence secretaries – set out New Labour’s policy for Iraq.

This outlined that the policy of “containment” (UN sanctions and no-fly zones) was flawed, since it did not “produce rapid or divisive results” – the fall of the Baathist regime.

The memo concluded that regime change was not viable. Not because it was unlawful, but because there was “no international support” for such a move at the time.

With the election of George Bush and the 9/11 attacks, New Labour’s new imperialist strategy was catapulted up the political agenda. Bush and Blair now pursued regime change in Afghanistan and set about creating the conditions for the invasion of Iraq.   more »

Bin Laden’s utterances, beautifully translated by James Howarth and well edited with informative footnotes by Lawrence, prove a better guide to his intentions and Weltanschauung than the same words mediated by CNN anchors and New York Times columnists.

He does not appear to be deranged, as his detractors insist he is. His message is plain: leave the Muslim world alone, and it will leave you alone. Kill Muslims, and they will kill you.

‘America won’t be able to leave this ordeal unless it pulls out of the Arabian Peninsula, and it ceases its meddling in Palestine, and throughout the Islamic world,’ bin Laden told the al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Alluni six weeks after the 11 September attacks.

‘If we gave this equation to any child in any American school, he would easily solve it within a second.’

When Bush said in 2004 that his was ‘a war against people who hate freedom’, bin Laden responded: ‘Perhaps he can tell us why we did not attack Sweden, for example.’   more »

THE STUFF THAT HAPPENED

Three years ago, the United States invaded Iraq. We can all run the story through our minds: Shock and Awe, Coalition of the Willing, Mission Accomplished, looting, "Stuff happens," no W.M.D., suicide bombers, purple fingers, blasted shrine.

Many who supported the invasion have taken this anniversary to argue that it all would have been worthwhile if things had been run better.

They argue that if the coalition forces had been large enough to actually secure the country, to keep insurgents from raiding Saddam Hussein's ammunition depots, to give the people a sense of safety, the country might well be on the road to a hopeful future.

We doubt it. The last three years have shown how little our national leaders understood Iraq, and have reminded us how badly attempts at liberation from the outside have gone in the past.   more »

17 MARCH

Exclusive: Bush Hires New Speechwriter

Iraq: Bush Uses 'Smoke & Mirrors' in "Largest Air Assault Operation"

Why Is It Always 'The' Holocaust?

Demonizing Arabs and Muslims to Justify Endless 'War on Terror'

Remembering Bobby Sands on Saint Patrick's Day: Heroic Resistance Fighter

Scary Thought: What Bush Really Needs Now Is Another '9/11'

Britain Now Hated As Much As America by Palestinians

Iraq: Wouldn't You Resist If Your Country Was Occupied by a Foreign Power?