What did you do to celebrate loyalty day? (more). Seriously, Bush just named May 1st “Loyalty Day” for all Americans, and will be instituting a series of re-education programs ensuring that all citizens blindly love the flag. I'm not even kidding. Note the URL. It's whitehouse.gov. Not .org.
Iraq continues to be more hellish than it ever was under Saddam thanks to the unprovoked attack by the US empire… A radical Islamic state is almost certain (since they are the “democratic majority”), chaos reigns, and calls for suicide attacks on the US grow daily (more, more, more, more, more, more). And as the case for WMDs disintegrates and it is clear that the US had no legal authority whatsoever to invade, the mainstream media has begun scrubbing its websites and archives of any stories that could damage Bush's credibility (more)…
Cheney's corporations, who have, among other villanies, contracted mercenary work to alleged terrorist nations in spite of sanctions, continue not only to help rule the US, but also to reap enormous profits (more)… And Exxxon just posted a quarterly profit of $7,040,000,000 (more), the largest in its history. CEO salaries in the “defense” sector almost doubled in the last year (for comparison, the average CEO salary only went up 6%), making the average defense CEO's pay almost six hundred times the pay of an army private (more) — not that massive pay inequity in the US is unusual (more).
I'm sure that most of you have seen this at this point, but check out what Jay Garner (the retired US general in charge of Iraq right now) said when asked how Americans should feel about what they've done in Iraq (more):
We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'
You might think I'm making it up, but he really did say that (more). I have real trouble believing that a statement that arrogant and foolish would go over even with the lowest common denominator, but even if it works in America, that's really not the kind of thing that American generals in Iraq ought to be saying if they care about international opinion, let alone revved up suicide bombers.
That said, if shows like The Daily Show are any indication, the more literate parts of the US are very aware of the lies and horrors that are being perpetrated in their name. After all — look at how Bush is rebranding himself as the “military President” (more, more), even though he's at best a drunk cowardly draft-dodger (more) and most definitely a dude with pants on fire (more)… but don't worry, according to the WSWS, “Bush promises unending war in Iraq and internationally” (more).
Finally, I've mentioned this story before, but I want people to be very aware of it: the White House continues to block access to 9/11 documents. We already know about shoddy work, blocked investigations, collusion with Halliburton and Raytheon, and so on… so what is left to be hidden? (more).
