voxpopgirl
This Girl's Voice


Monday, June 30, 2003  

•• My Comment System ••



The comment system i've been using ever since i began this blog earlier this year is known as BlogOut.

It's served this blog and all the voxpopgirl dwellers, lurkers and participants (including yours truly) well and i've met alot of kewl peeps via the "Shout Out" links at the bottom of each of my posts; however, for the last 3 days, BlogOut has been down and instead of those "Shout Out" links, a "Closed for Maintenance" link has replaced it, thereby allowing the small but loyal VPG readership no place to interact, react or simply act out ;-)

So, in the interest of providing an immediate alternative, i've decided to check out the HaloScan commenting system.

Unfortunately, in doing so, i've had to potentially lose all of the previous comments posted within the "Shout Outs" here at voxpopgirl -- that is, at least until BlogOut is back up and running, and at that point, i can choose to either go back to BlogOut, whereby all comments will be preserved, or alternately remain with HaloScan and try to figure out a way to import all the previous comments within BlogOut over into HaloScan -- or live the the possible reality that they will be lost forever out there in the ether.

In the meantime, i'd like to request 2 little bitty thangs from any VPG regulars out there:
[1] could you let me know what you think of the HaloScan commenting system, as compared to BlogOut.

[2] if anybody out there knows how to export comments from BlogOut into another system such as HaloScan, it would mean alot to me, as i would love to preserve all the comments and posts both positive and negative that you've all made up until this time.


Until then, keep it real.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/30/2003


Tuesday, June 24, 2003  

•• Denial and Deception: the Cowardly U.S. Press Corp and Bush Inc. ••



It's Tuesday, and you know what that means: the NYTimes's latest Paul Krugman OpEd is in da house. Here's the opening graf:

Politics is full of ironies. On the White House website, George W. Bush's speech from Oct. 7, 2002 -- in which he made the case for war with Iraq -- bears the headline "Denial and Deception" Indeed.


Now go and get your morning coffee and kick it with Krugman, cuz it's all good to da last drop, baby.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/24/2003


Monday, June 23, 2003  

•• A half truth is a whole lie ••



Last friday, my fellow blogger pal Matt posted at his wonderful blog Crookdimwit with a virtual shaking of his talented head that "Nearly half believe that the White House may have exaggerated fact, but they don't care."

I commented to him that perhaps at this point in time, Americans (according to those latest "polls"), might not care;

However, since the day that Shrub declared the war was over, an average of 1 bodybag a day returns from Iraq -- and we're at 50 51 52 53 dead americans in around 53 days as of today -- the cable news networks have been showing those fallen soldiers' mothers and fathers, heads bowed and sobbing as they're handed the folded American flag at their sons' funeral, and if the casualties keep mounting at this consistent rate, then i believe American's will find those currently "unimportant" little lies from the Bushies glaringly disturbing and not so easily dismissed or forgivable.

And what's absolutely heartbreaking, is when you go on over to the Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen page and take a look at the faces and names of the almost 200 American brave and very young soldiers who died needlessly -- in a mere 4 months -- for and because of George W. Bush's lies.

America may have "won" da war, but was there ever any doubt that the elephant wouldn't squash the ant?

That was the easy part for the most powerful nation on the planet.

The Bush administration bullshitted the American public and they bullshitted their sons and daughters' telling them it would be a "quick" war. Almost every day since the war was declared over by Smirky, CNN has been broadcasting yet another distraught soldier who's in shock about losing another one of his or her friends stating that he doesn't know why this is happening to them or why they're still there, and the next day we're seeing Wolf Blitzer over in the Middle East speaking with a really exhausted pissed off soldier who's saying he doesn't understand why he has to stay out there for another round of duty and he just wants to get back to his wife and kids.

Only this Friday on Imus, NBC's Tim Russert of Meet the Press said:

"Republicans [my emphasis] are concerned about occupation. Why? Because we are losing one American soldier a day over there and it's been 50 since May 1 when the President said the major military combat was over. That pace, that trend, that body count, if you really close your eyes and look up a year from now and the count is 300-400, that is a MAJOR problem."


Not one of those neo-imperialist bastards told the American people that winning the peace was gonna be an altogether different story.

And a half truth is a whole lie.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/23/2003


Friday, June 20, 2003  

•• my kewl new cellphone ••



Lemme tell ya about my fun new cellphone. Dig the snaps i took with it this past Thursday night:


Tyler, Terence & moi @ Hugh's Room on Thursday

Over the last year or so, i've become fed up with my Nokia "accidentally" calling up people.... you know how it is: the cellphone's either in your pocket or in your bag, and it's on and somehow, unbeknownst to you, you've accidentally triggered one of the keys and it's inadvertently called up someone, who in turn, gets an earful of random noise mixed with whatever the hell it is you're doing or saying to whomever it is you're hanging with, which can prove to be awfully embarassing if you're not careful; i've been on the receiving end of those accidental calls as much as my phone's been guilty of randomly ringing up my friends and giving them an earful of gawd only knows what.

So i decided a flip phone would solve all my problems; well, not all my problems, but at least, all my cellphone problems.

Enter, my stylin' new Panasonic GD88, which along with it being very light in weight, has that prerequisite voxpopgirl "flip" with an single line led screen on the face of the flip so that when the phone rings, you can check out who's calling and decide whether you wanna go to the trouble of taking the call which of course, requires that you flip the lid to answer it; i'm definitely digging that.

It's also got a really bright full-on colour screen that's rather large and makes it easy to read whatever's on it, and a built-in voice memo recorder, which is handy as hell.

But what's been the most fun, is something i didn't even set out to get, which is that snazzy little built-in camera that took those pics up above. If you're taking pictures of someone, you use the actual colour screen as a viewer to frame your shot, before you take the pic, whereupon you can immediately turn around and email said pic to your friends.

Gawd i love gear.... ! and i set out to put it to use as soon as possible on Thursday when i went out to catch a gig that my friends Shari Ulrich and Arlene Bishop were doing at Hugh's Room here in the T-dot. Shari's set kicked and Arlene followed with a brill set as well. After the gig we were hanging, and that's about the time that i snapped the group shot of yours truly and my pal Tyler Smith, who got up and sang b.g.'s for Shari, and Terence Gowan, who was playing bass and adding b.g.'s that night for Shari and later on for Arlene.

So, and aside from the fact that one of them's a little fuzzy due to my hand not being that steady after a couple of Campari's & O.J., they came out pretty good for pics snapped on a dinky little cell phone.

Now, if only it could take videos...


posted by voxpopgirl | 6/20/2003


Tuesday, June 17, 2003  

•• Intended Casualties of Bush's War: reality and truth ••



The NYTimes' Paul Krugman is my "go-to" guy every Tuesday and Friday, and his columns never let me down; if only the docile Democrats would follow suit and kick the fearmongering arrogant Republican asses a la Krugman -- relentlessly, consistently and continually until election eve of 2004.

Get your Krugman fix on the Bush Admin's "Dereliction of Duty" here.

In the meantime, here's hoping some Democrat will surface somewhere soon (John Kerry, step up to the plate dude?!) and give it as good as Krugman:

Last Thursday a House subcommittee met to finalize next year's homeland security appropriation. The ranking Democrat announced that he would introduce an amendment adding roughly $1 billion for areas like port security and border security that, according to just about every expert, have been severely neglected since Sept. 11. He proposed to pay for the additions by slightly scaling back tax cuts for people making more than $1 million per year.

The subcommittee's chairman promptly closed the meeting to the public, citing national security — though no classified material was under discussion. And the bill that emerged from the closed meeting did not contain the extra funding.

It was a perfect symbol of the reality of the Bush administration's "war on terror." Behind the rhetoric — and behind the veil of secrecy, invoked in the name of national security but actually used to prevent public scrutiny — lies a pattern of neglect, of refusal to take crucial actions to protect us from terrorists. Actual counterterrorism, it seems, doesn't fit the administration's agenda. [Italics Added]


Yesterday's WaPo had a revelatory piece on Rand Beers, who up until 5 days prior to the war on Iraq, was the National Security Council's senior Director for Counterterrorism; the Post's piece is the first time that Beers has revealed what was behind his stepping down:

"The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure," said Beers, who until now has remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as special assistant to the president for combating terrorism. "As an insider, I saw the things that weren't being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out."


Having worked under 4 administrations for over 30 years, and having served the last 3 years as one of the administration's top anti-terrorism operatives, Mr. Rand's resignation came as somewhat of a surprise to those inside the beltway. But here's the other eyebrow raiser:

Eight weeks after leaving the Bush White House, he volunteered as national security adviser for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), a Democratic candidate for president, in a campaign to oust his former boss.

[SNIP]

He had briefly considered a think tank or an academic job but realized that he "never felt so strongly about something in my life" than he did about changing current U.S. policies.

Of the Democratic candidates, Kerry offered the greatest expertise in foreign affairs and security issues, he decided. Like Beers, Kerry had served in Vietnam. As a civil servant, Beers liked Kerry's emphasis on national service. [Italics Added]

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/17/2003


Monday, June 16, 2003  

•• Eric Rudolph, Christian Terrorist ••



Ever since Eric Rudolph was apprehended and arrested, i've been wondering when Christian Fundamentalist John Ashcroft and his Justice Dept. were going to proclaim Rudolph for what he is: a Terrorist. Period.

Blogger and comic strip artist Tom Tomorrow's latest strip takes Ashcroft to task by applying all the Ashcroftian axioms to the newly captured Rudolph, a Christian Fundamentalist, of which he has so readily applied to Muslims, pro-choicers and any other group or individual that doesn't adhere to the right-wing Bushcroftian agenda.

Check out the strip at Salon.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/16/2003
 

•• Ohhhhhh, so now it's a WMD "Program" ••


In an article published yesterday in Salon, Jake Tapper writes:

When President George W. Bush says "cow," does he really mean "milk"? Does he use the terms "light bulb factory" and "light bulb" interchangeably? According to White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, when the president declared two weeks ago Friday that "weapons of mass destruction" had indeed been found in Iraq, he was merely using a term -- as he has on myriad occasions -- that he wields as a synonym for weapons of mass destruction programs as well.

A June 10 NY Newsday article titled "Bush Admin. Now Says Iraqi WMD a 'Program' " points to a new pattern amongst the Bushies when speaking of "Iraq's WMD's":

Faced with the awkward possibility that no significant caches of weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq, Bush administration officials are recasting their earlier predictions by insisting evidence will emerge that Saddam Hussein at least had a "program" for such weapons.

Bush used the term "program" in three consecutive sentences on the issue Monday. "Iraq had a weapons program," Bush told reporters. "Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program."

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, while declaring Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that she believes such weapons will be found, asserted it would take some time "to put together a full picture of his weapons of mass destruction programs."


Not since the Nixon administration has there been a U.S. admin is so brazen in its flagrant hubristic contempt and utter disregard for the American peoples' intelligence and respect; leading up to the Iraqi war, and on a weekly basis, if not a near-daily basis, the Bushies and their neocon architects of this New American Century of preëmptive and multiple wars, lobbed and levied rationale upon rationale for an immediate war on Iraq at the American public, but it now appears the Bushies may not have truly ever leveled with the American people after all.

Critics contend the word "program" is too imprecise to be meaningful. "It can mean anything," said Mel Goodman, a retired CIA analyst. "It can mean documents, anything; no matter how benign, they will find some various purpose for it."


How stupid do they think the American public is and how much longer are these thugs going to be allowed to carny the American people?

As usual, the Democrats are nowhere to be found.

•• Republicans v.s. Republicans ••


However, yesterday, the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain (who claims he still believes weapons of mass destruction will be found) called for hearings and says Congress should investigate whether intelligence was cooked.

And it's not everyday that you find TWO columns written in right wing publications by hardcore staid in the wool Republicans (albeit the Neocons would refer to these two dudes as Paleocons) who are asking for an explanation as to the motives for a war on Iraq, and for sources to backup the justification for that war in two recent articles, "An Unnecessary War" by Pat Buchanan and "Who Screwed Up" by William F. Buckley.

American Conservative magazine founder and editor Buchanan's column at WorldNetDaily asks:

What was America's real motive for attacking Iraq? Was it oil? Empire? To make the Middle East safe for Sharon?

That these questions are being asked, not only by America's critics, is the fault of the administration alone. For its crucial argument as to why it had no choice but to launch the first preventive war in American history is collapsing like a sand castle in a rising surf.

Iraq, in retrospect, was no threat whatsoever to the United States. We fought an unnecessary war, and now we must rebuild a nation at a rising cost in blood and treasure. [Emphasis added]


Even the National Review's editior-at-large Buckley wades into the same waters as Buchanan when he writes in this Townhall piece:
But even if we acknowledge that as a quandary, we don't satisfy critical concern over what was said by administration spokesmen that induced us to go to war. [Emphasis added]

[Snip]

But we are nevertheless entitled to know: How was intelligence information, presented as conclusive, so apparently illusory? Who was it, on the assembly line between the first man who spotted what he took to be WMD activity in Iraq, and the Defense Intelligence Agency and the president of the United States, who beamed out to the world not suspicions of WMD activity but affirmations of it, who screwed up? Who deceived, or was carried away? And what vaccines have our leaders taken to guard against other deceptions of like character?


•• Chickenhawk turns chickenshit ••


Curiously enough, NeoCon Kingpin Chickenhawk Bill Kristol turned into a chickenshit on this past Fox Sunday News and sought cover while leaving Bush and Powell out in the cold to take the direct hits -- of which he himself fired:

In comments sure to be seized upon by Bush administration critics at home and abroad, one of the leading proponents of the war in Iraq said Sunday that President Bush may have misstated the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. attacked.

"We shouldn't deny, those of us who were hawks, that there could have been misstatements made, I think in good faith," Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol told "Fox News Sunday."

Asked, by whom, the leading Iraq war backer explained, "By the president and the secretary of state, [statements] that will turn out to be erroneous."


Now, that's loyalty for ya.

"I don't think we need to be apologetic about the war," Kristol insisted. But he said the U.S.'s inability to uncover significant quantities of Iraqi WMDs means that the war may not have been as necessary and urgent as previously believed. [Emphasis added]

So now he tells us.

Kristol, who made his comments just minutes after Secretary of State Colin Powell said on the same broadcast that there was no doubt Saddam had WMDs when the U.S. attacked, did acknowledge, however, "There has been evidence that they had an ongoing weapons of mass destruction program, I think, even if they did not have as large a stock of the weapons as we thought."

Oops. There's that word again: "program", as in a "weapons of mass destruction program".

Riiiiight.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/16/2003


Wednesday, June 11, 2003  

•• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: Record Breaking book sales on Day 1••




Monday: Fans wait in line for Sen. Clinton to sign copies of
"Living History" outside a Barnes & Noble bookstore in N.Y.C.


Back in 2000, when Hillary Clinton's book deal with Simon & Schuster was announced, Alfred Regnery, rightwing Publisher and President of the rightwing conservative movements' book publishing company Regnery Publishing Inc.., wrote in Regnery's sister company, Human Events magazine:
First, the Clinton advance is simply too large–the largest ever except for that received by Pope John Paul II for world rights to his memoirs, a book that was subsequently published worldwide, in countless languages. Clinton’s $8 million is far more than Simon & Schuster would ever have to pay her in royalties. Publishers calculate advances on the basis of how much in royalties the author may ultimately earn. Under a usual and customary royalty deal, an $8-million advance would require sales of over two million copies of the Clinton book. No political book, no memoir, no autobiography has ever, ever sold that many copies.

Under a usual and customary royalty deal, an $8-million advance would require sales of over two million copies of the Clinton book. No political book, no memoir, no autobiography has ever, ever sold that many copies.

The outside sale, in fact, for Hillary’s book would be 200,000 copies, and even that is probably a stretch. [Emphasis added]

Today's headline in today's NY Times Business section reads:
"For Mrs. Clinton, One Day, 200,000 Copies"

The Washington Post reports that:
"Clinton's Memoir Sets Nonfiction Sales Record"

Over at CNN's International website, the headline in the Politics section reads:
"Clinton memoir breaks sales record"

Of course, the Rightwing Echo Chamber fronting as "news" outlets, are not about to Report the news and allow you to Decide;

The NewsMax store is selling the "Deck of Hillary" cards and is offering an "exlusive" should you wish to sign up and pay for a subscription to NewsMax, whereby they'll throw in the "Deck of Hillary" cards for free along with the "Deck of Weasels" and the Iraqi Most Wanted "Deck of Death Cards". Quel deal. Pun intended.

The best the rightwing newspaper outlets could muster about this news was through convenient omission of those inconvenient facts and by inverting the "good" news, by instead skewing the article starting off with this doomsday headline at WorldNetDaily, which read: "Hillary book doing poorly in the heartland" and over at the Reverend Moon-financed Washinton Times', the headline reads: "Veterans of Clinton wars pan, doubt Hillary's book".

Dream on Mr. Regnery; i'll bet daddy's rolling over in his grave.

It's only Day 2, Simon & Schuster have ordered 300,000 more books to be printed, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is just at the beginning of a fully booked cross-country media blitz publicity campaign and book promo tour.

And we still have President William Jefferson Clinton's record breaking book sales to look forward to.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/11/2003


Wednesday, June 04, 2003  

•• Casualty of War: America ••



A June 3/03 Toronto Star headline reads: "World support for U.S. at new low, survey suggests". By now we've all either read or heard about the Pew Global Attitude Report, however, most American newspapers and cable outlets have not mentioned the poll results of where Canada stands in that poll;

The Star tells us that:

Among Canadians, 63 per cent of the 500 people surveyed said they had a favourable view of the United States, down from 72 per cent last summer.


As if we're shocked. The Pew Report clarifies what we Canadians already know to be the reason behind the slip in favourability towards to U.S. and helps to distinguish what specifically about the U.S. we do not favour:

The Sixty per cent of those Canadians with an unfavourable view of the United States said the problem was with U.S. President George W. Bush, according to the poll. But Canadians' positive view of Americans - the people rather than the country - stayed virtually unchanged at 77 per cent.


We dig you America. We just think your Emporor is bringing you and the rest of the world down. Way down.

Over the past 40 years of Candian Federal elections, over half our population comes out to vote and make our voices heard.

Friendly advice to our neighbours south of the border:


oh -- wait a minute! That's right -- the American people DID make their voices heard in the 2000 Presidential Election: and they voted for someone else other than Smirky.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/04/2003
 

•• Another Perfect Landing from Mr. Top Gun ••




"If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come and get me!
I'll be at home! Waiting for the bastard!
"


Toronto Star political commentator and author Linda McQuaig reports that just in time for the 2004 Presidential election campaign, Americans will be privy to a “made-for-TV movie — filmed in Toronto this spring — of George Bush's heroic handling of the 9/11 crisis” that “is sure to help the White House further its two-pronged re-election strategy: Keep Americans terrified of terrorism and make Bush look like the guy best able to defend them.”

Sadly, the films’ writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, is “a kind of west coast David Frum — a Canadian who has fully embraced the Bush revolution and even joined the administration (sitting on a White House arts committee).” [Emphasis added.]

Chetwynd and the American people by proxy, can thank the Bush Administration officials for their generous no holds barred access in order to portray Bush’s heroic efforts with the utmost of accuracy:

In researching his film, Chetwynd reportedly had "lengthy" interviews with Bush and top officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, Andrew Card and Karl Rove.

This access is in stunning contrast to the short shrift the administration has given to serious attempts to investigate 9/11, including efforts by a joint Congressional inquiry, which was denied access to top officials.

The White House is currently blocking publication of most of the inquiry's 800-page report. It is also putting roadblocks in the path of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, which Bush initially resisted establishing, but agreed to, under pressure from 9/11 families.

Among the many questions needing answers: Why was the multi-billion-dollar U.S. military unable to muster any defence of the nation that day, not even sending U.S. fighters up to investigate the hijacked planes?


McQuaig reports that the made-for-tv movie “portrays Bush as decisive and in-charge on 9/11, commanding officials on Air Force One to take him to Washington” with snappy wild wild west dialogue doled out by Smirky:

"If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come and get me! I'll be at home! Waiting for the bastard!"


Fortunately, McQuaig quickly snaps us out of the Bush Matrix:

Whoever was driving Air Force One apparently wasn't listening; as we know, the president was flown instead to Nebraska and only returned that evening to the White House, where Laura Bush was holding the fort.

Which reminds me: sometimes reality bites and the truth hurts, which of course, is something that Bush cheerleader cum writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, will make sure never makes it to final cut.



**From the "I bet poor Mordecai must be rolling over in his grave" files: Mr. Chetwynd's debut screenwriting credit is as a co-writer with Mordecai Richler for the 1974 film starring Richard Dreyfuss, "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" of which Mr. Richler is the author.






posted by voxpopgirl | 6/04/2003
 

•• Salam Pax's Debut Guardian column ••



As promised, here's Baghdad Blogger Salam Pax's debut Wednesday column in the U.K. Guardian featuring his reports on life in the Iraqi capital. In the midst of a lawless city in bedlam, Salam's signature irreverence remains intact; a few choice paragraphs:

Vacancies: President needed - fluent in English, will have limited powers only. Generous bonuses." This appeared on the first page of the Ahrar newspaper. Another new weekly. Newspapers are coming out of our ears these days.

There are two questions which no one can answer: how many political parties are there now in Iraq? And how many newspapers are printed weekly?" Most of these papers are just two or four pages of party propaganda, no license or hassle. Just go print. I am thinking of getting my own: "Pax News - all the rumours, all the time".

...there was, in the middle of Baghdad, a huge parking lot where looted cars were being auctioned to be taken to the north. It took the western media three weeks to find out about that.

But the main concern of people in all Iraqi cities is still security. You hear stories about day-time robberies in streets full of people. The newest method is to bring a kid along, get him to jump into an open window and start screaming. Four thugs will follow, accusing you of trying to run the kid over, then they kick you around a bit and take the car. All the while, bystanders will be giving you the meanest looks, you child molester, you. You'll be lucky if they don't pull out a gun.

Actually, the coalition forces are coming down hard on people they catch in possession of guns. Car searches are more frequent and if they find a firearm they will cuff you, put a sack over your head and - here comes the question: and what? We still have no laws.


Salam Pax's column will appear in the Guardian every 2 weeks.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/04/2003


Tuesday, June 03, 2003  

•• Signs that You Might be a Canadian* ••



1. You're not offended by the term "HOMO MILK".

2. You understand the phrase "Could you pass me a serviette, I just dropped my poutine, on the chesterfield."

3. You eat chocolate bars, not candy bars.

4. You drink Pop, not Soda.

5. You know what a Mickey and 2-4 mean.

6. You don't care about the fuss with Cuba. It's a cheap place  to go for your holidays, with good cigars and no Americans.

7. You know that a pike is a type of fish, not part of a highway.

8. You drive on a highway, not a freeway.

9. You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.

10. You know that Casey and Finnegan were not part of a Celtic musical group.

11. You get excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.

12. You brag to Americans that: Shania Twain, Jim Carrey, Martin Short, Alanis Morissette, Avril Levigne & many more, are Canadians.

13. You know that the C.E.O. of American Airlines is a Canadian!

14. You know what a touque is.

15. You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

16. You know that the last letter of the English alphabet is always pronounced "Zed" not "Zee"

17. Your local newspaper covers the national news on 2 pages,but requires 6 pages for hockey.

18. You know that the four seasons mean: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road work.

19. You know that when it's 25 degrees outside, it's a warm day. (Celsius, silly!)

20. You understand the Labatt Blue commercials.

21. You know how to pronounce and spell "Saskatchewan". (Sas-Kat-chew-wan)

22. You perk up when you hear the theme song from 'Hockey Night in Canada'.

23. You were in grade 12, not the 12th grade.

24. "Eh?" is a very important part of your vocabulary, and is more polite than,"Huh?"

25. You actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all of your Canadian friends!!!! and then you send them to your American friends just to confuse them...further.


*Received in an email from a Canadian friend; hey, feel free to forward this on to your Canadian and American friends.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/03/2003


Monday, June 02, 2003  

••Baghdad Blogger inks deal as Columnist••



Remember Salam Pax, the Baghdad blogger whose straight talk and dry barbs about life in Baghdad leading up to the war we all kept dibs on before and during the war on Iraq? Seems we bloggers and political junkies on the web weren't the only ones paying attention.

Local activists on the ground in Baghdad are striving to publish an independent newspaper "Al-Muajaha - The Iraqi Witness". Urgent calls for funding have been made, for equipment, cameras, laptops, satellite links, etc, and to pay local journalists some money to live.


The IndyMedia Center folks from the Bristol IndyMedia branch in England were listening, and offered to help out:

Bristol IndyMedia volunteers have helped set up a new IMC-based website as part of a proposal to twin with Baghdad. Bristol woman Julia Guest today flew out to Baghdad, taking some money and supplies.


One of the regular contributors to independent "Al-Muajaha" is none other than Salam Pax. Currently, the posts you read at his own blog, will also be carried at The Iraqi Witness's website (Al-Muajaha) as well as in the print version distributed in Baghdad.

Salam's contributions won't be limited to the new local indy Baghdad newspaper; On May 30, Salon reported that:

A British newspaper said Friday it has signed as a columnist an Iraqi architect whose Internet diary of daily life in Baghdad captivated thousands around the world.

The Guardian said the "Baghdad blogger," known as Salam Pax, would write a biweekly column for the newspaper beginning Wednesday.


I'll make sure to remind voxpopgirl readers about his debut Guardian column when it appears next Wednesday.

posted by voxpopgirl | 6/02/2003


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