Wonkette

Looks like that anti-suicide bomber PSA we posted about earlier is pumping up would-be suicide bombers all across the Middle East, not just in Iraq. From Rebecca Sinderbrand: MORE »

• Godspeed You! Black Emperor offshoot Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band (same as A Silver Mt. Zion) is very dark, awesome. Even their website is enjoyable. With Black Ox Orkestar. $12 at 8:30PM. Black Cat. [Black Cat]

• Gordon Lightfoot no longer in a coma tour. $22- $38 at 8PM. Wolf Trap. [Wolf Trap]
• International Spy Museum hosts panel called “Propaganda and Persuasion: Psychology’s Use in Intelligence.” Was JFK killed by the CIA? Did AIDS originate in a lab in Maryland? These questions will be answered for only $12 at 6:30PM. [Spy Museum]

• NYT endorses Lamont, WP, The Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Post back Lieberman. [Red State]

• Abortion cartoon not funny. [Pandagon]
• “There’s convincing evidence that the pictures from Qana were cynically staged and exploited in a way that will turn your stomach, as the Lebanese ‘rescue worker’ we see in many of these photos parades around with a dead child for four hours, even changing his clothes and continuing the exhibition.” [Little Green Footballs]
• The Administration “may have broken over two dozen federal laws and regulations — some of them multiple times — according to an unreleased report from the House Judiciary Committee Democrats.” [TPMMuckraker]

Striking back in the war of Internet images, the American military today released what they said were the captured outtakes of a video made by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that it hoped would make him look more like a bumbling paintball player than the ruthless jihadist he has portrayed himself as.

-New York Times MORE »

• Pentagon commits $300m to “psychological warfare operation” that “includes plans for placing pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the source”; bumper stickers and t-shirts are also being considered. [USAT, USAT]
• Army approves new, classified rules for interrogation. Official: “This is a stick in McCain’s eye. It goes right up to the edge. He’s not going to be comfortable with this.” [NYT]
• Pentagon is reportedly monitoring the activities of “peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.” [NBC, Reuters]
• Administration is debating the need for new nuclear warheads; “the U.S. could someday spend billions of dollars replacing much of the current arsenal.” [WSJ]
• Democrats press for subpoenas of White House officials regarding government response to Katrina. [WP]
• Texas prosecutors are investigating possible ties between Rep. Tom DeLay and lobbyist Brent Wilkes, who was linked to former Rep. Randy Cunningham. [NYT]
• House nears passage of tough border security bill. [NYT]
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce splits with Republican leadership over immigration bill. [WP]

MORE »

Reading the New York Times’ massive front-page story Sunday on the U.S. military’s propaganda efforts, we were charmed by these ideas generated by the now-infamous “Lincoln Group,” sadly left on the drawing board:

Lincoln proposed variations of the satirical paper “The Onion,” and an underground paper to be called “The Voice,” documents show. And it planned comedies modeled after “Cheers” and the Three Stooges, with the trio as bumbling wannabe terrorists.

The latter, clearly, offers the most intriguing possibilities, including the image of a terrorist slapping his nose up and down and saying “nyuck-nyuck-nyuck” after a car bomb explodes early. MORE »

New American Empire cheerleader Ralph Peters appeared on The News Hour the other day to explain why people shouldn’t get their undies in a bundle about the Pentagon paying for propaganda placement in Iraqi newspapers. It’s because things are going so poorly otherwise: “When a house is burning down, you put out the fire before you worry about the table settings.” Excellent point, except what with the use of propaganda running counter to the stated goals of the war/fire itself, it’s a little like those place settings he’s so eager to ignore are made of solid napalm. Then again, what fire? The Iraqi papers we read just reported, “Warm Evening Air Redolent of Nostalgic Scent of Wood-Burning Stove.” MORE »

The LA Times today exposed U.S. military operation that pays Iraqi newspapers to run stories written by “information operations” troops about how wonderful things are going. All together now: Talk about your American-style democracy. What bothers us isn’t even that this manipulation of the press runs counter to the whole establishing-a-free-society objective that men and women are dying for — it’s that, as with the rest of the war, it doesn’t seem to be working out very well. According to the LAT, one of the advertorials placed by the military was entitled “Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism.” That is what you call your low bar. What were the competing stories? “BREAKING: Suicide Limited to Suicide Bombers.” Maybe, “Death Just One of Many Options for Iraqis.” I know: “Here, Have a Plastic Turkey on Us.” Is it propaganda if it’s as depressing as the news? MORE »

In a Veteran’s Day speech today, Bush came out with the administration’s official policy on criticizing the war in Iraq: “While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.” Because, he continued, “That’s our job.” MORE »

The DoD is taking extreme security precautions for Sunday’s tasteful Clint Black jamboree commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks–to the point of erecting restraining fences all along the two-mile path of the march from the Pentagon to the National Mall: MORE »

The Washington Post announced today that it was withdrawing sponsorship of the America Supports You Freedom Walk, the Pentagon’s subdued fourth-anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks, culminating in a National Mall concert by Clint (”I Raq and Roll”) Black. Antiwar activists, the Post’s Newspaper Guild local, and some Post reporters all questioned the seemliness of the paper’s sponsorship of an event that seemed to be plumping for the long-discredited connection between the war on terror and the Iraq War. Post flak Eric Grant announced: MORE »