] The newly revealed genetic code of the suspected SARS
] virus still doesn't explain how it arose or how to stop
] the spread of the deadly flu-like illness, federal
] officials said Monday.

Salon.com Technology | Despite SARS genetic code, experts puzzled

ouch

CNN.com - Oakland antiwar protest gets ugly - Apr. 8, 2003

] On Thursday, March 20, 2003, our friend and colleague
] Maher (Mike) Hawash was arrested ("detained") as a
] "material witness" by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism
] Task Force in the parking lot of Intel Corp's Hawthorne
] Farms parking lot. Simultaneously, FBI agents in
] bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles awoke
] Mike's wife Lisa and their three children in the home,
] which they proceeded to search. Since then, Mike has
] been held in the Federal Prison at Sheridan, OR.

Free Mike Hawash

] A Florida-based Web hosting company knocked a small news
] site offline after it posted controversial photos of
] captured American soldiers, stoking accusations that
] private firms are censoring free speech.

USATODAY.com - POW pictures spark Internet censorship debate

Tom, the evil CEO of Industrial Memetics, turned another year older today...and another year wiser.
Yay for Tom!!!:)

Donald Rumsfeld often quotes a line from Al Capone: "You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
But should the guiding philosophy of the world’s leading democracy really be the tough talk of a Chicago mobster?

The Arrogant Empire by Fareed Zakaria

] Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's main presidential
] palace, a great rampart of a building 20 stories high,
] simply exploded in front of me -- a cauldron of fire,
] a 100ft sheet of flame and a sound that had my ears
] singing for an hour after. The entire, massively
] buttressed edifice shuddered under the impact. Then four
] more Cruise missiles came in.
. . .
] No doubt this morning the Iraqi minister of information
] will address us all again and insist that Iraq will prevail.
] We shall see. But many Iraqis are now asking an obvious
] question: How many days? Not because they want the Americans
] or the British in Baghdad, though they may profoundly wish
] it. But because they want this violence to end: Which, when
] you think of it, is exactly why these raids took place.

ArabNews: Baghdad's Night of Terror

] A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to
] Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across
] the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all
] shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth
] Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church
] of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to
] reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera
] "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing
] didn't start. They were willing to see their homes
] demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody
] tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the
] likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and
] Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of
] slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put
] in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so
] they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up
] from foot to head."

Anti-War human sheilds change their minds about the war upon meeting Iraqis

] The following is a copy of Mary (Ann) Wright’s letter
] of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
] Wright was most recently the deputy chief of mission
] at the U.S. embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She
] helped open the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan,
] in January 2002.

More background on Wright:

] I have been a diplomat for fifteen years and the Deputy
] Chief of Mission in our Embassies in Sierra Leone,
] Micronesia, Afghanistan (briefly) and Mongolia. I have
] also had assignments in Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
] Grenada and Nicaragua. I received the State Department's
] Award for Heroism as Charge d’Affaires during the
] evacuation of Sierra Leone in 1997. I was 26 years in
] the US Army/Army Reserves and participated in civil
] reconstruction projects after military operations in
] Grenada, Panama and Somalia. I attained the rank of
] Colonel during my military service.

Key Points:

] I disagree with the Administration’s policies on Iraq

] I disagree with the Administration’s lack of effort in
] resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

] I disagree with the Administration’s lack of policy
] on North Korea

] I disagree with the Administration’s policies on
] Unnecessary Curtailment of Rights in America

More high level resignations...

Earlier today, I heard on CNN about the footage of the POWs, but CNN wasn't showing them due to their graphic nature. Memestreams now has these pictures, and without really thinking about it, I popped open the website to take a look at what CNN wouldn't show. Now that I have, I felt the need to vent, so here it is. Definitly stop and think about it before you look at these pictures. Because I don't think I will ever be able to get those images out of my head again, and I am consumed with a horrible feeling. Here I sit, with my freedom that I take for granted every day. Freedom that I don't even really think about, because it has never been taken away from me. When I look at those pictures, they make me want to puke. Not because of the images themselves, as grotesque as they are. I want to throw up and cry because of what they represent. These are pictures of people who have obviously been tortured, and who have consequently been killed, execution style. These are people that were killed this way protecting my freedom.
Now I am left with a horrible feeling. Since this war started, I, like many of you, have been glued to CNN. I have watched this war unfold from the days leading up to it, to the unexpected wed. night attacks in Baghdad, to what it has unfolded to now. It makes me feel strange to watch a war from the comfort of my own home. And now that I have looked at those pictures, this has been driven home to me.
I feel powerless. I feel frustrated. And I feel my freedom, wrapped around me like a protective blanket....a blanket weaved with souls.

I guess I just wanted people to be aware of these pictures. I do not recommend looking at them, because it will only frustrate and sadden you, or perhaps make you angry. They are an important piece of history, but at the same time, they are a piece of history that leaves a horrible taste in your mouth...history that will probably give me nightmares.

Please, regardless of your political feelings about this war, support our troops, no matter what. Stop and think about what they are doing for you. Through my tear-filled eyes, I see courage that I have never seen before. For the first time in my life, I see angels.

-Nanochick