flickering pictures

When all this first started with Tunisia, I didn’t think there was any way the people could oust their president after some 24 years in power. I’d spent just a couple of weeks there in 2008, and people seemed more or less willing to accept the corruption of a government that was at least […]

[Read more →]

Remember Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi reporter who last December threw his shoes at George W. Bush, yellng “this is from the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq”? That gesture just earned him three years in prison, and something tells me that if he’d been a white guy tossing shoes at Bush […]

[Read more →]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based Al-Baghdadia television, threw both his shoes at President Bush at a press conference in Iraq yesterday. He called Bush a “dog,” and as the shoes sailed harmlessly by Bush’s head, al-Zeidi yelled that “this is from the widows […]

[Read more →]

Apparently tired of covering the election, the war and Iceland’s emergence as a terrorist state, the “Most Trusted Name in News” is apparently also looking to become the Most Trusted Name in Not-News:
From CNN:

More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let an Iraqi puppy come home with a Minnesota […]

[Read more →]

The CBC reports that the International Olympic Committee has blocked Iraq from participating in the Beijing Olympics two weeks from now because “the country’s government dismissed officials in favour of its own appointees, who weren’t recognized by the IOC.”
A similar ban was imposed in May — and then repealed — by FIFA, soccer’s governing body, […]

[Read more →]

Canada, already home to many thousands of former U.S. soldiers who wanted no part of the Vietnam War, may continue its tradition of harbouring conscientious objectors by allowing Iraq War opponents to settle north of the border. The three opposition parties in Canada’s four-party minority government joined forces today to pass a non-binding motion […]

[Read more →]

From FOX News, unfortunately:

Code Pink members unfurled a pink banner reading “Troops Home Now” and waved signs as they began the protest, which they promised would include incantations and pointy hats for a “witches, crones and sirens” day.
“Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we’re […]

[Read more →]

After the American-led invasion of Iraq, the army superimposed photos of Saddam Hussein and other “most wanted” Iraqi officials onto playing cards, and distributed the images to the media. As a result, the media would occasionally report the arrest of the “Ace of Diamonds,” or the “Five of Hearts,” essentially allowing the armed forces […]

[Read more →]

Wired has just published new, apparently never-before-released pictures of the horrible brutality and abuse at the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. I’m not going to post them here, because they churn my stomach and I almost wish I hadn’t seen them myself, but in the interest of creating public awareness of some of […]

[Read more →]