ruling Monday the history of racial intimidation attached to it outweighs the free speech protection of Ku Klux Klansmen or others who might use it. Washington Post. A good precedent, upholding the sometimes less than obvious principle that particularly odious speech crosses the line to become action (although therein, of course, lies a slippery slope, with discretion in the hands of the wrong people…) Interestingly, the Court voted 6-3 to uphold the ban but only thought that it did not violate constitutional free speech guarantees by a 5-4 margin. The outlier, with some tortured reasoning, was — you guessed it — Clarence Thomas. It is hard to say whether it is better or worse since he started presuming to think on his own in the past few years, rather than silently vote the conservative party line. Certainly more entertaining to watch his foot-in-mouth disease.

I continue to be sickened by the enthusiasm the evangelists are showing for the war and its perpetrators. Here’s one of the latest examples. ABC News

Jury finds parents guilty of assault, endangerment for baby’s strict diet: …Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum said the couple treated their daughter, Ice, like a gerbil, feeding her a diet of ground nuts, juice, herbal tea, beans, cod liver oil and flax seed oil and no breast milk or formula. SF Chronicle

Sean-Patrick Kelley of the noted Agonist site has been lifting items word-for-word without attribution from Stratfor, says Wired News. Kelley admits it.

“Rouse yourself! Sit up!

Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.

Do not let the king of death, seeing you are careless,

lead you astray and dominate you. “

Sutta Nipata II, 10

I was privileged to be incommunicado on a tropical island for a week, not following the war news until I devoured a New York Times when we got to the airport yesterday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, no WMD have yet been found in the advance to Baghdad (Reuters/Yahoo!), and the “nerve gas antidote” of last week turns out not to be (Ananova). According to Al Jazeera, Britain may be admitting there may in fact be no WMD to be found in Iraq. The civilian death toll continues to mount horrifyingly (CTV.ca). Areas “pacified” and “secured” by US-UK forces remain unwelcoming and chaotic (Le Monde) and humanitarian crisis is looming if not already upon the people of Iraq (Al Jazeera). The hardliners in the dysadministration seem to be winning the internal battle (Independent/UK [via Commondreams]) over whether we will ‘rebuild’ or ‘annex’ Iraq (NY Times) and whether we will continue to undermine the UN as facilitator of any of the higher aspirations of the world’s nations toward peace, cooperation or prosperity. Tony Blair by some accounts (Sydney Morning Herald) isn’t faring so well politically; price to pay for allowing one’s best intentions to be co-opted by American rapacity. Unsurprisingly, the Arab world sees through the US propaganda line (NY Times)

More surprising to find in taking the pulse of the war after a week’s absence is the seemingly rapid and wholesale drift in American public opinion, how malleable to the propaganda effort the public’s mind and will appear to be. When US forces were bogged down halfway to Baghdad, even generals on active duty were brimming with contempt (Guardian/UK) for Rumsfeld, calling him another McNamara and denouncing him for prosecuting this war “on the cheap.” The dysadministration spin has been an ever-shifting crafty attempt to soften the public underbelly (Washington Post) about how the war might take much longer than anyone had been promised and to obfuscate its purpose enough that the public will no longer recognize how it is being lied to.

It seems to have worked. Just a week later, as the invading forces encircle Baghdad, , things are little different than what was expected — US forces are still taking heavy casualties (Al Jazeera), with accumulating friendly fire incidents (Al Jazeera)

(and who killed those fleeing Russian envoys?) not to mention the many thousands of Iraqi soldiers slaughtered (Boston Globe: “…to send a message to both the Iraqi leadership and civilians that coalition forces could move into the city at will…”) and inestimable civilian deaths — and yet, while there is little rejoicing in Iraq, Americans are swept up in the euphoria of ‘winning’… Meanwhile, outside the US, doubts about US pie-in-the-sky claims to have the situation nearly licked and disdain for US ‘liberation’ rhetoric (Pacific News Service) accumulate… with the worst yet to come, street-by-street and house-by-house through the Iraqi capital.

The effort to turn Iraq into a democracy, in other words, is making the U.S. less of one. Our opposition party has disappeared, corporate interests dictate public policy, and the feds may be rummaging through your e-mail.

There’s a dirty secret no one has told you, and here it is: This war is not about changing Iraq, it’s about changing America. LA Times

Technology is sexy again.: A San Francisco art and technology group’s latest production is a calendar featuring naked babes posing with machines. It’s the perfect gift for your favorite technology fetishist.

The Survival Research Labs calendar release is a part of a benefit being held Tuesday for kinetic artist and musician Tim North, who was diagnosed with cancer early this year. Wired News

via American Samizdat: Marine who said no to killing on his conscience:

The first American conscientious objector from the Iraq war will give himself up at a marine base in California this morning. He said he believed the war was “immoral because of the deception involved by our leaders”. [thanks, brooke]

Fighting not to fight:

Of 2.7 million men and women in the active and reserve forces in the US, 29 were discharged as conscientious objectors in 2002.

The Center on Conscience and War in Washington, which counsels prospective COs, reported 3,500 calls for advice in January, twice the normal rate.

Who ever said that impassioned political discourse can’t be zany fun?!! SpazOut NY [thanks to Thomas Schmidt]

“Every time any media outlet mentions the Iraqi Republican Guard they always preface it by calling it elite. However, there is no internationally accepted definition for ‘elite.’ I think we face the real possibility of cheapening the use of the word if standards aren’t set,” said United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Powell continued, “I think it’s sad that we’ve degenerated into some sort of elite relativism where you only have to be better than the next guy to be considered elite even if that next guy sucks. Any person that goes through two weeks of training shouldn’t be called elite.”

As part of the standard settings procedure the U.N. plans to send in an elite team of inspectors to measure the Iraqi troops’ eliteness level. BBSpot

In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there’s an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.

”It’s simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,” he said. The Miami Herald

Related: Are Christian evangelists eyeing Iraq? Dedicated workers of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Samaritan’s Purse — two of the biggest evangelical Christian missions in the US — are reportedly waiting on the Jordanian border for the signal to enter the battle-scarred country.

Baghdad under attack: attempts to preach Christianity in Iraq is bound to set off alarms

Both organisations insist that their priority will be to provide food, shelter and other needs to the victims of the war. But they don’t deny that if the situation presents itself, they will preach their Christian faith in a country that is predominantly Muslim. Al Jazeera

Visualizing the Costs: A lot of people don’t really understand how much money is at stake with the Iraq “crusade”. This diagram could help you to understand what the USA is doing, and what are its main goals. [via walker]

Technology is sexy again.: A San Francisco art and technology group’s latest production is a calendar featuring naked babes posing with machines. It’s the perfect gift for your favorite technology fetishist.

The Survival Research Labs calendar release is a part of a benefit being held Tuesday for kinetic artist and musician Tim North, who was diagnosed with cancer early this year. Wired News