Gary Younge (Guardian Utd): Ignorance is no excuse

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Monday February 9

Ignorance is no excuse
The premise for this war was not security but politics - and it is our politicians who should be in the dock
By Gary Younge

Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, could learn a great deal from how his son has handled Janet Jackson's right breast. The singer bared her bosom during a raunchy dance with Justin Timberlake in the Super Bowl half-time show last weekend.
Jackson apologised, saying that she did plan a "reveal", but Timberlake was supposed only to rip off her rubber black bustier to show a red lace bra (so that's all right then). Timberlake blamed it on a "wardrobe malfunction". The National Football League, which staged the match, blamed CBS, the television network which screened it. CBS blamed MTV, to which it had contracted out the half-time entertainment. MTV blamed Janet Jackson. And the media conglomerate Viacom, which owns both CBS and MTV, insists that it has nothing to do with them.
So it was left to Michael Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to declare his "outrage" and order a "swift and thorough" investigation, which could result in fines worth millions of dollars if CBS and its affiliates are shown to have breached indecency guidelines.
Let's leave aside for a moment the value system of a government that can order an immediate inquiry into a bare breast and take a year to launch one into a bare-faced lie presented as a pretext for war. For there is a far more important principle at hand than the US government's calibration of indecency.

Read more.

[T_i_B]

1. They are all a load of boobs if you ask me.

:eyes:

[Capt_Nemo]

2. This quote encapsulates the reason why this war is

the first and foremost issue that progressives have to confront
all over the world:

"This war is not just killing Iraqi civilians, resistance fighters and coalition soldiers. It's murdering any pretence that we live in countries that value, let alone practice, the principle of democratic accountability. It calls into question our ability to rein in political excess and to root out state-sponsored incompetence."

Everything else takes back-seat, because it is the very existence of
democracy that is threatened by this war. That is why we can not
"get over it". That is why removing Blair takes precedence over any
doubts about what will come after. That is why neo-cons must be
neutralized.