I woke up this morning and saw what must have been the 50th story about the death of TV producer Aaron Spelling, the 300th story about Al Gore’s global-warming movie.

The thousandth story about Hillary Clinton’s “fundraising savvy,” the millionth story, each, about Iraq, bird flu, hurricanes and the “war on terror."

Finally -- I’m not making this up -- the billionth story about Angelina Jolie and her baby, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, born in the movie-star equivalent of a manger in Namibia and destined for a glory as yet unknown and, presumably, unscripted.

Which is why I decided that what America needs, right now, is a monarchy, and that Angelina Jolie should be queen.

Like I said, it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out -- I’m just connecting the dots. Not only does America need a monarchy, but, in my opinion, it needs an absolute monarchy.

Not one of those squishy “constitutional” numbers they have in England, for instance, but an honest-to-God, autocratic, crack-the-whip, Russian-style despotism, with all power invested in a single person, whose will is law and who is, in the end, inseparable from the State itself.   more »

The effect the war in Iraq has had a "huge impact" on motivating Muslims planning acts of martyrdom in the UK. This comes from a private briefing document compiled by anti-terrorist specialists for senior Scotland Yard officers.

It continues: "Iraq is cited many times in interviews with detained extremists but it is over-simplistic to describe terrorism as the result of foreign policy. What western foreign policy does provide is justification for violence ..."

It says changing jihadist attitudes is a long term issue: "Whatever preventative measures are taken or discussed around the world, none are comprehensive and early results are not expected.

Many jihadists do not feel that 'winning' is important because God will see to that eventually - what is important is 'taking part'."

The report says the removal of grievances the jihadists use to justify violence will take time: "What will change them - gradually - is argument, the removal of justifying causes (Palestine, Iraq), the erosion of perverted beliefs and day-to-day frustrations."   more »

If you want to understand why the war is going so badly in Iraq, it may help to examine the recent reaction to "Hadji Girl," the videotaped song about killing Iraqis by U.S. Marine Corporal Joshua Belile.

The song became controversial when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) discovered it on the internet and objected to its lyrics. "Hadji Girl" tells the story of a soldier "out in the sands of Iraq / And we were under attack":

The term "hadji" (also sometimes spelled "haji" or "hajji") is the Arabic word for someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, it has become a common slang term used to describe the locals.

According to a dictionary of war slang compiled by GlobalSecurity.org, the term is "used by the American military for an Iraqi, anyone of Arab decent, or even of a brownish skin tone, be they Afghanis, or even Bangladeshis" and is also "the word many soldiers use derogatorily for the enemy."   more »

The American fascist ideologist Lawrence Dennis argued in the 1930s that fascism was a worldview that could be imposed by a movement, which did not have to really understand the fascist idea.

In trying to comprehend the foundations of the Bush ideology, scholars and analysts linked the Bush ideology to fascist thinkers; ideologues of the Bush regime propounded fascist ideas, without necessarily claiming to be fascists.

Faith, however, transcends ideas. Bush's religious faith stands above and informs his sense of unshakable convictions. Bush told Bob Woodward: 'going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will."

Bruce Barttlet, a republican who worked for Bush senior told Ron Ruskin that people close to Bush commented on how Bush talks about this "Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do…Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis." .   more »

In video footage recorded before he died a year ago, and broadcast on an Arabic satellite news channel for the first time today, Tanweer says:

"What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and until you stop your financial and military support to America and Israel."

Tanweer, a young British Asian from the Beeston area of Leeds, was one of the four bombers who exploded backpacks inside packed London underground trains and a bus last year, killing 52 people.

The release of the footage on Al Jazeera television today comes on the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks of July 7, 2005.

According to the BBC, Tanweer then refers to the non-Muslims of Britain and says that because they voted for a government which “continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya”, then they deserve such actions.   more »

The belligerent response in Washington to the North Korean missile test has provided another graphic example of the way in which militarism and the manipulation of public fears play a central role in official American politics.

For the US administration, North Korea’s actions come as a political godsend, enabling it to whip up a climate of fear and deflect public attention from the deepening quagmire in Iraq and opposition to its domestic policies.

As well as pressing for further punitive measures against North Korea, the Bush administration will undoubtedly use the opportunity to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure on China.

Washington’s objectives in the North Korea are not so much economic, but strategic—to add another link in US plans to encircle rival China by establishing bases in and alliances with neighbours.

In doing so, it is laying the basis for a far broader conflict.   more »

6 JULY

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America: The Terror State

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