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Links, and a solicitation

by Mark Gisleson

A digression from the usual today. The short post yesterday was necessitated by my running downtown to attend an editorial staff meeting at City Pages where Steve Perry and I discussed this whole Babelogue blogging experiment, and outlined some of the coming changes. I'll let those be a surprise for now, but in the meantime, I'd like to solicit some feedback.

What do you like about Bush Wars? What don't you like? Come early December this entire project is going to be restructured, and now's the time to let us know what you think. Don't limit yourself to us alone. Let us know which political sites you think work best, and which major web destinations are a bust (in your opinion). E-mail me here with your thoughts.

Thanks.

* *

I've got a busy day again today, but I always find time to do some quick surfing and reading. Here's some interesting new stuff I came across.

Slate's Fred Kaplan with an analysis of the corrupt decision to let WorldCom/MCI build Iraq's cellular network.

One of the reasons Paul Bremer has let the phone situation in Iraq go to hell is that he's too busy flogging the next war. Iran's to blame for bombings in Iraq according Bremer. [via Antiwar.com]

"Iraqis dance in streets at troop attacks." Here's more on why they had the street dance.

European leaders have scheduled a summit meeting for this Saturday to discuss Iraq. Here's hoping they demonstrate some class and integrity and vote to help out, despite the Bush's administration's inexcusable rhetoric in the build-up to this avoidable war and occupation.

Israel just bulldozed another house. Frankly, I don't care why. I'm just sick of the never ending belligerence. I also write a "This day in history" feature as part of the front page Babelogue blog. A recurring feature I employ is to take note of the anniversary every historic breakthrough in the Middle East that was touted as bringing peace to this war-torn region. Yesterday was a double-header: the 25th anniversary of Camp David, and the second anniversary of Israel pulling out of the areas around Jenin and Jerusalem following a Sharon-Arafat agreement. Where the hell is Muhammed ben Gandhi when you need him?

TBogg has a list of things that have happened in the last 12 months. It reads like the annotated version of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

John Ashcroft snuck into the Twin Cities last night with no advance warning. G.R. Anderson Jr., City Pages' local government guy got wind of it and e-mailed me the details of Ashcroft's 8:00 am arrival at 4:00 this morning. Well, yeah. I missed my only opportunity to heckle a world-class civil liberties abuser. But I think it says a lot that Johnny A. has been reduced to making sneak forays into blue states. Dan Kennedy comments on "Big Brother's contemptible sneer" at the Boston Phoenix.

Wes Clark mobbed in Hollywood, Florida. Drudge has a picture. Try to imagine our president plunging into a mob comprised of the general public. Yeah, you can think about it, but if you think out loud, expect the Secret Service to knock on your door.

No details, but Drudge has this mini-headline up: "REPORT: PLANE CARRYING DIXIE CHICKS SAID DOWN..." I doubt I'll be posting more on this, so check Google News for updates.

UPDATE: Well, I didn't expect Drudge to get the story while I was still spellchecking this post, so here's the story on the Dixie Chicks — so far.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: I kept digging and here's the BBC story on the Chicks' brush with catastrophe. No injuries, but welcome to the breathless world of Drudge-style real time reporting. I'm sure readers pulling this up later tonight will find all of this to be fascinating.

 

Posted by Steve Perry at September 19, 2003 11:47 AM

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