24 February 2007

A new measure of the pulse of the people...

...reveals deep emotion among Americans over the situation in Iraq. From a fascinating AP poll of sentiments regarding the war:

Given a range of possible words to describe their feelings about the overall situation in Iraq, people were most likely to identify with “worried,” selected by 81 percent of those surveyed. Other descriptive words selected by respondents:

Compassionate: 74 percent.
Angry: 62 percent.
Tired: 61 percent.
Hopeful: 51 percent.
Proud: 38 percent.
Numb: 27 percent.


15 February 2007

The Onion comes through again...

Radical Islamic Extremists Snowboard Into U.S. Embassy

February 14, 2007 | Issue 43•07

BAGHDAD—Extremist board-trick crew Al-J'Aqasse, the Middle East's most prominent Islamic radical snowboard posse, is taking full props for destroying the American embassy when a member nailed a goofyfoot 720 nosehook from a security-barrier railgrind into its offices while carrying 25 kilos of C4 plastic explosives, Thrashzeera magazine reported Tuesday. more

11 February 2007

Here's a novel policy idea...

...that labor advocate Jonathan Tasini suggests the Democrats adopt. I think he's on to something:

Spend $5 billion to set up a free wireless Internet network across the country for every American. My friend, sociologist Joel Rogers, calculates that wireless for a typical city of 150 square miles costs about $20 million to set up and, if you figure 200 such cities cover about 30,000 square miles, you cover 80 percent of the population at a total cost of $4 billion. Throw in another billion for the less populous areas and, presto, you've just lowered peoples' cost of living by hundreds of dollars a year (a whole lot more than the majority of people got from the Bush tax cuts). Now, do you think that might endear a whole lot of young people to the Democratic Party for a very long time ("Like Your Free Wireless? Thank The Democrats!")?

Check Tasini's full article as well as his blog, Working Life.

06 February 2007

More gems from Banksy...

...including three of the verbal variety. From his book, Wall and Piece:

"Anyone who believes in capital punishment should be shot."

"People who get up early in the morning cause war, death, and famine."

"You don't have to an illegal immigrant to work here - but it helps."

And finally, a piece he painted on a barrier in the West Bank (more):