~ only two days after our suggestion [+] that the decompression of language be applied to trite headlines, george w bush takes the idea to its logical conclusion for the ‘war on terror’:

“The struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies and who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world”

this would almost be a perfect success of the lessons of the angry red planet; however, we believe that gwbush spoke the term ‘conscious’, instead of ‘conscience’.

“Intelligence indicates suspected al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan “contacted” at least one person in the U.S. in recent months, sources tell CNN. Details soon.”

what stunning details could soon follow? a map of the united states was found in south east asia? a man in indonesia was heard to be practicing english? a lebanese woman has opened a custodian checking account for her preteen daughter at a new jersey bank? the sky is falling!!

~ in other stupid news, we have a headline: “U.S. Struggles to Grasp Scope of Threat”. a more accurate headline would be: “if al queda even exists, they are grinning ear to ear as they watch americans bring more damage upon the United States with expensive and time consuming responses to rumors of threats of threats of attacks than the actual attacks would bring.” maybe nothing is going to catch on fire now, but the effort put into preventing the fire would have greater benefit to all if it had been put instead into preventing ignorance and want, perhaps at the expense of the aforementioned fire. yes, it would be safer to make cars out of jello and titanium and have them driven by robots, but it is cheaper to use plastic and aluminum and have them driven by puny humans and just hope that the pile ups and jackknifings are kept at a manageable level.

~ john kerry needs to knock off that salute schtick right now. for one thing, it is against military protocol for any civilian – even the president – to salute active duty officers and enlisted men; this is not the primary reason he should cut it out of his campaign speeches, however. kerry seems to have gotten a big kick over how well that tacky ‘reporting for duty’ gimmick went over at the beginning of his nomination acceptance speech. since that time, we’ve seen numerous images of him repeating the move whenever he makes an appearance on his bus/train tour. the kerry talking points are that bush didn’t go to vietnam, and kerry volunteered to fight in vietnam; okay, that lesson has been learned by anyone who plans to vote this november. nevertheless, many of kerry’s ‘supporters’ are still sore over how the democratic party administration swindled the anti-war dean out of the nomination; also note the only other candidate who received delegate votes is the only other anti-war candidate, the honorable dennis kucinich. the new lesson is that the continued conjuring of militaristic imagery and sloganeering by the democratic candidate whose vague hints about his strategy for iraq suggest that his plan is indistinguishable from bush’s plan is a turn off for the idealistic supporters of the progressive former candidates whose tenuous loyalty to kerry is one of convenience, not affinity.

even the pedants at the angry red planet, recently troubled by the bedfellows whom ralph nader has chosen in his efforts to have his name on the ballots in certain states, from whom he has chosen to accept money, and who he has chosen to publish his latest book, hesitantly considered a concession that kerry is the last best hope for the united states. however, a bitter attack upon the angry red planet by fellow liberals and/or progressives over our announcement that we believe that dekalb county/metro atlanta would better be served by cathy woolard than by cynthia mckinney brought us to reevaluate the value of doctrine and our place within its confines; the result of this examination has been a new lease on the life of our nader votes. as far as john kerry goes, though, he still looks like a jackass to everyone who isn’t gung ho about the fiasco in iraq or in vietnam every time he salutes other civilians.

~ after five good years of eudora [w], we have made the switch to thunderbird [w]. we’ve only had it open for a day, and though it seems slow in sending mail – this perception is probably due to the progress window that pops up instead of running the background – thunderbird’s handling of multiple email accounts and identities is far superior to eudora’s abilities, which is why we made the switch in the first place. even so, we would like to see all the email accounts place the incoming mail in the same inbox whilst still using imap.

Teresa Heinz Kerry pointed at a picture of chili on the menu and asked the cashier what it was before ordering a bowl.

~ there are some new historical markers along the freedom parkway; thanks to the technological advancements of lexan and color printing, the viewer may now make better sense of the battle of atlanta through the use of maps, diagrams, and mention of contemporary landmarks. while we appreciate the classic design of the original historical markers, some readers might not always find it helpful to learn that, say, logan’s 15th a.c. was arrayed along a street, when the viewer is disoriented by new streets, new houses, and new hills. we entreat that the state places similar markers along the entrenchment lines that the northern invaders had placed through what is now midtown.

~ considering the lack of media coverage, most of you probably are ignorant of the existence of the democratic national convention. even so, the angry red planet congratulates dennis kucinich [w] for picking up 37 votes at the delegate roll call!

~ considering that voters in the united states do not elect directly the executive, polls that list the percentage of the popular vote are misleading. tripias [w] has a feature that breaks down the polls by states and adds up the electoral votes. provided that the info is accurate, it gives a better idea about the possibilities of the election than the percentage polls do.

~ thanks are in order for the hospitality of gypsy farm [w] of mauk, georgia, for hosting our visit and demonstrating their construction and culinary skills.

~ more allegations of child abuse at the hands of american soldiers in abu ghraib prison are being floated by seymour hersh. the transcript of the speech in which he disclosed the information is at pastspeak [w] and a link to the video in question is at dailykos [w]. we are hesitant to believe the accusations until the evidence has been presented – not that we are enthusiastic about seeing these things – but the fact that the gov’t declared publicly that there are more images and videos that they are not going to release is consistent with the notion of the existence of the things that hersh describes.

~ most of our readers realize that the war/peace in iraq is fucked and that democrats are timid invertebrates; it is not yet time to barrage the rest of our readers with a litany of justifications for nader-voting, so we posit this quote as a test on how to respond to a lunatic:

“I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. “…Isn’t that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?”

though the ravings of the unhinged santorum appear to be a harbinger of the apocalypse, his point is supported by much evidence; massachusetts has disappeared from the face of the earth, san francisco has burst into white hot flames, and new paltz has hosted over 12 dozen suicide pacts – all of this since the beginning of same-sex marriages in these locales. in addition to these manifestions of doom, upwards of 10,000 hetero marriages have been destroyed, with the separating partners confessing that they felt compelled to ‘go gay’ by the marriages of other people; 8,000 of these were in texas, alone.

~ while the ‘context images’ used to be a collection of all the images that appeared in this log at some point, we have extended the library by filling it with dozens of new images that do not appear in the log. click ‘more context images’ on the right to see if you can find them.

~ tom tomorrow [w], of all people, has compiled some links that lead one to believe that there were (are?) kids being abused by u.s. troops in abu ghraib prison, including a teenage girl who was made to strip off her clothes. if true, i wonder if rush limbaugh will call this a fraternity prank, as well.

~ the torn and seared flesh on our hands has greatly hindered our sticker project.

~ we have another declaration that al qaeda is planning to attack the united states; again there are no details, proof, or evidence – easily the most useless and stupid statement we have heard all day. as that the reason for al qaeda’s existence, why do they need to remind us? are they going to point out that the fbi has picked up some chatter that the new york yankees are planning to win the world series and make a lot of money, some time in late summer or early fall? what is strange is that this ‘information’ was fed to the media right after the kerry and edwards ticket moved into the headlines. i guess we will have to look out for whatever until bush is reelected or until the end of july, when bin laden is to be captured/killed, according to the new republic [w].