New NYT Poll Shows A Steady Decrease In Public Support For Bush’s War

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Opinions Begin to Shift as Public Weighs War Costs
By Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder

While 82 percent of whites said the United States should take military action to oust Mr. Hussein, just 44 percent of blacks said they supported that approach. In addition, 71 percent of whites said they were proud of what the United States was doing in Iraq, compared with 33 percent of blacks.
The findings reflected directly on Mr. Bush’s standing among African-Americans. Thirty-four percent of blacks said they approved of the job he is doing, compared with 75 percent of whites.
The finding comes as a number of black political leaders have been at the forefront of the antiwar movement, arguing that young black men and women would be disproportionately represented on the front lines, and that the war would drain federal money that should be spent on domestic programs.
“I have a sick feeling about all the young lives that are going to be destroyed,” said Geraldine Hunter, 75, a black Democrat in Cleveland. “I don’t know why Bush was in such a hurry to go to war.”
Latifa Palmer, 29, of Chino, Calif., who is also black, said: “If you don’t mess with them, they won’t mess with us. Bush telling Saddam to leave his country would be like Saddam telling Bush to leave his country.”

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New Michael Moore Movie In The Works

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Michael Moore plans Bush-bin Laden film

“The senior Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after Sept. 11,” said Moore.
Moore told Variety the primary focus of the new project will be to examine what has happened to the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. He accused the Bush administration of using a tragic event to push its agenda.
“It (the new project) certainly does deal with the Bush and bin Laden ties,” said Moore. “It asks a number of questions that I don’t have the answers to yet, but which I intend to find out.”
Moore said he expects the new movie to be in U.S. theaters in time for the 2004 presidential election…
“I expressed exactly what was in the film and instead of being blacklisted, I’ve not only gotten a deal to fund ‘Fahrenheit 911’ but offers on the film after,” he said. “Presales on (‘Bowling for Columbine’s’) video release ran ahead of ‘Chicago’ this week, and my book is returning to the top spot on the New York Times best-seller list.”
Moore said the success of his documentary and book reflects majority public support for his political argument.
“It’s because the majority of Americans agree with me, see the economy in the toilet and didn’t vote for George W,” he said. “People are now realizing you can question your government while still caring about the soldiers.”

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Vetrans Speak Out Against Bush’s War

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For many US vets, war is not the answer

Adding to veterans’ anger and fuelling a growing sense of betrayal, last week the House of Representatives voted to approve a $25 billion cut in veterans’ benefits – including disability benefits – over the next 10 years at the same time as Mr Bush seeks massive tax cuts for a wealthy few.
“The President’s words about supporting the troops are quite empty, on two counts,” Erik Gustafson, who fought in the 1991 Gulf War, said of Mr Bush’s speech on Friday.
“One, there has been a series of miscalculations that put a lot of people in harm’s way unnecessarily, and secondly supporting our troops doesn’t mean turning our backs on our veterans, especially when we’ll be having a whole new generation of Gulf War veterans,” he said.
Mr Gustafson is executive director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Centre, which he set up in 1998 with an emphasis on improving living conditions for ordinary Iraqis.
Mr Pollack said the cuts to veterans’ benefits are “an indication of the lengths to which this administration is willing to go to fund their priorities, which are obviously aggressive wars and tax cuts for the rich”.
…Yet, these veterans say, the troops risk exposure to the depleted uranium used in anti-tank munitions, which the Pentagon insists has no adverse health effects but veterans’ groups charge was part of the toxic cocktail that caused Gulf War syndrome.
To those who say Gulf War syndrome is all in the mind, as a new Australian study has concluded, they point to the fact that the Veterans Administration has classified 164,000 Gulf War veterans as disabled – more than one-quarter of the 585,000 eligible for benefits.
About 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died of a variety of causes since returning from the war, according to Veterans for Common Sense.

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U.S. Soldiers Asked To Pray For Bush

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The soldiers are the ones who need our prayers — not the man who single-handedly placed them all in danger. This is just plain weird.
US soldiers in Iraq asked to pray for Bush

US soldiers in Iraq asked to pray for Bush
They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush.
Thousands of marines have been given a pamphlet called “A Christian’s Duty,” a mini prayer book which includes a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for Bush.
“I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult. May God’s peace be your guide,” says the pledge, according to a journalist embedded with coalition forces.
The pamphlet, produced by a group called In Touch Ministries, offers a daily prayer to be made for the US president, a born-again Christian who likes to invoke his God in speeches.
Sunday’s is “Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding”.
Monday’s reads “Pray that the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is right regardless of critics”.

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An Arsenal Of Informative Articles From Truthout This Morning

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I’m in a hurry and I realized that my plan for this morning consisted of republishing the links that t r u t h o u t had prepared for me this morning.
So I’m going to just shamelessly republish them here.
You can subscribe for yourselves if you want to get the same information I do every morning. I highly recommend it:

Air Raids Pound Baghdad, 50+ Civilians Dead
Outspoken Army General Upsets White House

A ‘Turkey Shoot,’ but With Marines as Targets
Robert Fisk | Raw, Devastating Realities About Basra

News From Iraq Causes Americans to Think Again
Analyst: ‘Mass Destruction Weapons Need to be Found’
Bush Frustrated with Media Coverage of War
Missteps with Turkey Prove Costly
Jesse Jackson Jr. | From Gunboat Diplomacy To Gunpoint Democracy
Paul Krugman | Delusions of Power

Fake Nuclear Docs Weren’t Even Good Fakes

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Hey, it’s cool guys. It’s not like innocent people are dying over this or anything…
U.N. Official: Fake Iraq Nuke Papers Were Crude
By Louis Charbonneau for Reuters.

A few hours and a simple internet search was all it took for U.N. inspectors to realize documents backing U.S. and British claims that Iraq had revived its nuclear program were crude fakes, a U.N. official said.
Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a senior official from the U.N. nuclear agency who saw the documents offered as evidence that Iraq tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, described one as so badly forged his “jaw dropped.”
“When (U.N. experts) started to look at them, after a few hours of going at it with a critical eye things started to pop out,” the official said, adding a more thorough investigation used up “resources, time and energy we could have devoted elsewhere.”
The United States first made the allegation that Iraq had revived its nuclear program last fall when the CIA warned that Baghdad “could make a nuclear weapon within a year” if it acquired uranium. President Bush found the proof credible enough to add it to his State of the Union speech in January.

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“National Day Of Religious Fasting” Bill Passes House

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A.K.A. Religiously-Ambiguous Bill Aims To Further Blur The Line Between Church And State
Since when is it the role of our government to determine when the public needs “fasting and prayer.” Are they just trying to keep our protien levels low so we’re easier to fool?
Which religious practices exactly are being advocated? Some new kind of All-American religion? The Church Of Shrub, perhaps?
Gee Mr. Shrub “President” Sir, I haven’t sinned against humanity and I certainly don’t need a government-sanctioned day of national fasting to redeem myself.
Will it be against the law (or looked down upon) to eat up during the national day of fasting?
What’s next? Appetite suppressants to help us through our national day of fasting? (Perhaps government-issued appetite suppressants? Wait a minute…who’ll get the contract?!)
(If this Administration would only put this much effort into feeding people…
Food sure has a crazy way of bringing people together too 🙂
Recognizing the public need for fasting and prayer in order to secure the blessings and protection of Providence for the people of the United States and our Armed Forces during the… (Introduced in House)

Whereas all of the various faiths of the people of the United States have recognized, in our religious traditions, the need for fasting and humble supplication before Providence;
Whereas humility, fasting, and prayer in times of danger have long been rooted in our essential national convictions and have been a means of producing unity and solidarity among all the diverse people of this Nation as well as procuring the enduring grace and benevolence of God;
Whereas, through prayer, fasting, and self-reflection, we may better recognize our own faults and shortcomings and submit to the wisdom and love of God in order that we may have guidance and strength in those daily actions and decisions we must take; and
Whereas dangers and threats to our Nation persist and, in this time of peril, it is appropriate that the people of the United States, leaders and citizens alike, seek guidance, strength, and resolve through prayer and fasting: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the President should issue a proclamation–
(1) designating a day for humility, prayer, and fasting for all people of the United States; and
(2) calling on all people of the United States–
(A) to observe the day as a time of prayer and fasting;
(B) to seek guidance from God to achieve a greater understanding of our own failings and to learn how we can do better in our everyday activities; and
(C) to gain resolve in meeting the challenges that confront our Nation.

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NBC On How The Shrub Administration Miscalculated A Lot Of Things

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Too bad the Shrub doesn’t like to “revisit decisions” (per Bob Woodward – see clip).
Leaders should be able to adjust their strategies to account for the realities of a situation once they become apparent.
Here are some quotes and clips (Small – 2 MB) of Shrub advisors and Dick Cheney from as recently as ten days ago. Could they have been any more wrong?

NBC On Civilian Casualties In Baghdad

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This is stuff I picked up from NBC on Wednesday night when I had my TiVO set to record the blogger piece (which got bumped to Thursday).
These clips aren’t too grisly, but they get the point across: we’re (accidently, inevitably) bombing innocent Iraqi civilians. Damn.
Keep in mind that this is an edited collection of clips made up from clips shown on the NBC Nightly News — this is not an unaltered broadcast. All the clips are in order — I haven’t rearranged them or anything, but I have edited out a lot of yapping that came in-between what I felt were the interesting parts of the video footage.
NBC Nightly News – March 26, 2003 Excerpts (Small – 4 MB)