From today in MSNBC:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator removed from some store shelves
  
• Osama bin-Laden and associates trained by US military in terrorism
  
• Pakistan accepts US battle plan; Afghans ask foreigners to leave
  

posted by J.M. Branum at 2:30 PM | link

The war drums are pounding and the future does not look bright. What's especially disturbing is the misinformation being churned out by Bush and his propaganda team. For instance, let's take Bush's statement that "this is the first war of the twenty-first century."

It's not. Many wars were being fought when the century begun, including the still on-going US/UN war against Iraq. Why can't we come clean on this? We've bombing Iraq at least once a week and are butchering the children of Iraq with our inhumane sanctions.

If Bush can't tell the truth on this, how can we expect him or his administration to tell the truth on this new war we are about to undertake.
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:08 PM | link

From today's NY Times:

• Aide confirms leader of Taliban opposition is dead
  
• President singles out bin-Laden; Be ready military is told
  

posted by J.M. Branum at 2:02 PM | link

At Scholtzky's in Austin at a cyberterminal. Strangely enough their cybernanny blocks jmbzine.com, but NOT blogger.com where I can update it! Very strange.
posted by J.M. Branum at 6:46 PM | link

Watching the news today on this "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance." I feel very weary as I am sure the rest of the nation does. May God bring our nation and world hope and comfort in our bereavement, and may God show us how to respond to this horrible act of hatred with forgiveness and reconcilation.
posted by J.M. Branum at 4:05 PM | link

From indymedia.org: A report that CNN was airing footage from 1991 of Palestinians dancing in the streets as if the footage was from after the bombing

From the NY Times: The Reaction: For Many, Sorrow Turns to Anger and Talk of Vengeance
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:43 PM | link

Latest news on the victims of the attack
posted by J.M. Branum at 3:20 PM | link

Just announced on MSNBC: Bush was likely a target
posted by J.M. Branum at 3:13 PM | link

It looks like the US Department of State is back into B.S. mode...

The purpose of this report is to present the facts concerning Iraq under Saddam Hussein.


There are a wealth of charges and counter-charges concerning actions undertaken by Saddam and by the international community towards Iraq.


Based on publicly available information, the facts contained in this report demonstrate that under the regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraq continues to repress its people, threaten the region, and obstruct international efforts to provide humanitarian relief.


We are helping the Iraqi people in their efforts to bring about a regime that is committed to living in peace with its neighbors and respecting the rights of its citizens.


We want to see Iraq return as a respected and prosperous member of the international community, and as the evidence shows, this is unlikely to happen as long as Saddam Hussein is in power.


As long as Saddam Hussein is in power, we are determined to contain the Iraqi regime and prevent it from threatening the region or its own people. We will also continue our efforts to increase humanitarian relief for the people of Iraq, over the obstructions of the regime.

Hmm... we're helping the Iraqi people? We sure have a funny way of "helping" them...

Sanctions target the weakest and most vulnerable members of the Iraqi society-the poor, elderly, newborn, sick, and young. Many equate sanctions with violence. The sanctions, coupled with pain inflicted by US and UK military attacks, have reduced Iraq’s infrastructure to virtual rubble. Oxygen factories, water sanitation plants, and hospitals remain in dilapidated states. Surveys by the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organization (WHO) note a marked decline in health and nutrition throughout Iraq. (1)


While estimates vary, many independent authorities assert that at least 500,000 Iraqi children under five have died since 1990, in part as a result of the sanctions and the effects of the Gulf War. An August 1999 Unicef report found that the under-five mortality rate in Iraq has more than doubled since the imposition of sanctions. (2) Former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Denis Halliday has remarked that the death toll is "probably closer now to 600,000 and that’s over the period of 1990-1998. If you include adults, it’s well over 1 million Iraqi people." (3)


Taken from www.nonviolence.org...

posted by J.M. Branum at 3:00 PM | link

ok, it's time for some comic relief from The Onion...

Good Citizenship Tips

That sucker Jesus has forgiven me for some pretty bad sins - ok, this guy missed the whole "grace not being a license to sin" thing, but it is funny. (and there are some folks out there who really live this way which is crazy whack)
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:55 PM | link

Well it looks like the Conspiracy Theorist nuts have already come out of the woodwork.

Here's another interesting news item...

Wed Sep 12, 2:24 PM ET Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat donates blood at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001. Arafat, along with
hundreds of Palestinians, participated in a blood drive for the victims of the deadly airline hijackings in the United States
which he condemned as a 'horrible attack.' (AP Photo/Adel Hana) (click here to read more)
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:51 PM | link

Thank God! I just got an email from my friend Aimee and she is safe!
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:45 PM | link

NY Times: Lower Manhattan to Stay Closed
posted by J.M. Branum at 12:14 AM | link

Taken from: www.newjerusalemmusic.com...

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." God has inspired both believers and non-believers with inspired songs! Dylan, The Moody Blues, U2, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel, Roy Orbison and 100 other so-called "secular" groups have put out more "spiritual" songs that the entire Christian music industry has. The people are not dumb! Sure, they have been buying praise and worship albums, but they are going to stop buying this mush. Sales are going to fall through the floor unless we start to offer tunes and melodies! Of course the lyrics must be excellent…that's essential. For that to happen songwriters would have to start reading and loving and writing poetry! I mean LOVE poetry! Love the great poetry God has given the world. I can't deal with lyrics because that's another subject in itself.

posted by J.M. Branum at 12:01 AM | link

www.sojo.net
posted by J.M. Branum at 11:37 PM | link

Taken from: www.nonviolence.org

How Come the U.S. Trains All the Terrorists?
By Martin Kelley


I've just been reading today's New York Times article about the conviction of the New York City World Trade Center bombers. With it is a companion piece about the plot leader, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who hoped to kill 250,000 people when the towers collapsed onto the city below. Born in Kuwait to a Pakistani mother and Palestinian father, his life began as an allegory for the social displacements of the Middle East, and he grew up with anger towards the Israelis-and by extensions the Americans-who had forced his father from his homeland. Even so, Yousef came to school in the West, to Wales, where he studied engineering. But in 1989 he left it for another education, fueled by his anger and leading to the death of six in the heat and smoke of the massive underground explosion in downtown Manhattan.


Yousef traveled to Afghanistan to join the Mujahedeen rebels in their fight against Soviet occupiers, and there learned the guerrilla techniques he would later employ in New York. Who supported the Mujahedeen and paid for Yousef's training in terrorism? The United States Central Intelligence Agency, who funneled the Afghan rebels millions of U.S. taxpayers dollars.


It would seem a simple case of U.S. militarism coming home to roost, but it is not so simple and it is not uncommon. Follow most trails of terrorism and you'll find United States government funding somewhere in the recent past.


Timothy McVeigh was another angry young man, one who had to drop out of college, couldn't find a steady job, and moved from trailer park to trailer park as an adult, wondering if the American Dream included him. He did what a lot of economically-disadvantaged young kids do, and enlisted in the U.S. Army (this has been described by some as "the poverty draft").


In 1988, he met Michael Fortier and Terry Nichols at the U.S. Army base at Ft. Benning, Georgia (coincidentally home of the infamous School of the Americas). There he was taught how to turn his anger into killing and was quickly promoted, getting good reviews and being awarded with the Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge for his service in the Gulf War.


Later he came back to the U.S. with his Ft. Benning friends and turned his anger against the U.S. government. He used his military skills to build a bomb (allegedly with Nichols, now at trial, with the knowledge of Fortier, who turned state's witness). On a spring day in 1995, he drove the bomb to Oklahoma City's federal building and set it off, killing 168 people. McVeigh's mother said, "It was like he traded one Army for another one." (Washington Post, 7/2/95)


Another terrorist trained by the United States government.


But it doesn't end there either. This same dynamic happens on the nation-state level as well. Today's headlines also include stories about the standoff between Iraq's Saddam Hussein and United Nations arms inspectors, a situation which threatens to renew military fighting in the region. Who funded Hussein and gave him millions of dollars worth of weapons to fight the Iranians during the 80s? Why, it's the U.S. government again.How come the United States is directly involved in training some of the biggest terrorists of the decade? Haven't we learned that militarism only leads to more militarism? Would Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Timothy McVeigh just be political unknowns if the United States hadn't taught them to kill with their anger? Would Saddam Hussein be just another ex-dictator if the U.S. hadn't funded his military during the 1980s?


We can never know these answers. But we can stop training the next generation of terrorists. Let's stop funding war, let's stop solving problems with guns and explosives. Let today's angry twenty year olds cut people off in traffic and do no more. Let's stop these undeclared wars.

posted by J.M. Branum at 11:32 PM | link

Hell keeps getting worse. Now the Washington Post is reporting that up to 800 may be dead at the Pentagon.
posted by J.M. Branum at 11:29 PM | link

More links on the NYC tragedy...

Story from the NY Times on the hellish situation on the ground in NYC.

Also here's a link on Gas price gouging in Oklahoma
posted by J.M. Branum at 11:17 PM | link

Oh my Lord... I was just given the links to these pictures of people falling to their deaths at the WTC...

picture #1
picture #2

Warning these pictures very disturbing.

God, why are you letting these horrible things happen?!
posted by J.M. Branum at 10:13 PM | link

This news item scares the **** out of me. (Taken from MSNBC.com)

THE SCALE of the attacks and the loss of life — mostly in New York City’s World Trade Center, but also in Pittsburgh and Washington — ensured that “no option has been taken off the table,” senior U.S. officials said. Asked if that included nuclear weapons, one senior official said: “I said no option is out of the question. That’s precisely what I mean.”

It is frightening how quick things are advancing. I wrote a column this afternoon that touches on this, but it looks like its press date (Thursday) might be too late. The final draft will be up at Daily University Star or you can read a rough draft here...

Pacifist Ammo #1
by James M. Branum (Mass Communications Graduate Student)


At the time of this writing, America has passed the first few hours after hell paid a visit to America. Rescue efforts are beginning, airspace is shutdown, and the government is in exile in Nebraska. Reality has taken on the horror of a Tom Clancy novel gone bad.


As we would expect, President Bush spoke to the nation a short while ago. Most of what he said would be what we would expect of our national leader, but one sentence stuck out for me as being a moment of unintentional brilliance; “The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake: We will show the world that we will pass this test.”


I do not know if Bush realized the truth of what he said, but he is right. America is being tested, however, I don’t share Bush’s confidence that we will pass the test.


You see we have failed the test before, when we were bombed in Oklahoma City.


I saw first-hand the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing as a freshman student journalist at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. I will never forget seeing the bombsite lit up by giant halogen lights during the recovery efforts. It was as if every shard of glass, every piece of rubble was frozen in time and space by Timothy McVeigh’s actions.


Later, I did a feature interview with a professor in the Nursing department who volunteered her time at the bombing site. Her stories of caring for the wounded and shell-shocked at the bombsite were so incredibly sad, and I could see that she too had become a victim of Tim’s violence by having to witness such terrible carnage.


A few weeks later I joined thousands of Oklahomans at the mass memorial services to grieve over the incredible loss of life. It was rare to find anyone in Central Oklahoma who didn’t know someone who was either killed, wounded, or who had survived the bombing. It seemed like the entire state went through the grieving process together.


No event compares to a terrorist attack in its level of psychic devastation. It is a natural human reaction to desire vengeance on those responsible. However, when we chose to indulge the urge to execute Timothy McVeigh, we failed the test and consequently perpetuated a tragic cycle of violence that began in Waco with a religious nut who thought that violence was an inevitability and stockpiled weapons to wait for Armageddon.


The cycle then took off as the FBI decided to create a showdown at Koresh’s compound. Instead of arresting Koresh when he was out jogging, they created a siege situation that fulfilled his messianic delusions and resulted in the deaths of 74, including many innocent children.


The cycle rolled on as the militia nuts took up the cause to avenge the massacre of the Branch Davidians. Most of the nuts were all talk, but one was not. Timothy McVeigh, poisoned with the message of hatred and vengeance, launched a terrorist attack that killed 168 including again many children.


America could have stopped the deadly cycle of violence but we did not. We killed Tim to appease our collective rage, and in doing so flunked the test. There is little hope that the nuts will give up their fight, so the cycle will likely continue.


For once, Bush is right. America is being tested again. The easy response will be a barrage of cruise missiles on one of the suspected terrorist strongholds, but I’ll be praying that America spurns the siren calls of jingoism and retaliatory hate.

posted by J.M. Branum at 10:00 PM | link

This shot looks just like the aftermath of the OKC bombing. I just can't imagine something like this happening in downtown New York. It is so unfathomable. I'm sorry to keep going on and on about this, but it is just so crazy to realize.
posted by J.M. Branum at 9:55 PM | link

Well I got an email from my friend Sonia. She is thankfully ok. Still no word from Aimee.

MSNBC has a story on the heroic actions of New Yorkers and people across the nation in this tragedy. I as a former Oklahoman empathize greatly with the people of New York in dealing with this tragedy. I am so proud that the people of New York are citizens of this great nation.

OK, enough sappy patriotism. I may think the government is corrupt and corporate america has sold its soul, but I can't lose hope in the people of this nation and in the powerful vision of demcracy articulated by the founding fathers.
posted by J.M. Branum at 7:27 PM | link

This tragedy of catastrophic events has changed the very way we view news over the internet. So far, CNN, MSNBC, and the NY Times have transformed their sites to low-bandwidth versions to accomodate the massive internet traffic.
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:46 PM | link

My emotions are all mush today. One moment I feel like I'm going to throw up, the next profoundly sad, the next happy, then next guilty for feeling happy. This is one ****ed up world we live in. God where are you? We need you to show Yourself in the midst of this incredibly evil situation.

Taking a break from the live newscasts at the present moment to listen to some Cake. I gotta get my mind off of this. I would feel a lot better if I knew that my friends in NYC are ok. Please pray that they are, and for all of the people there. I know New Yorkers have this reputation as being mean and unfriendly, but my experience with them is that while they are different culturally, they are very cool people once you take the time to get to know them. May God be with all of the people of New York.
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:39 PM | link

I am still in a state of shock over the terrorist attacks on NYC. As I'm watching the news throughout the day I keep seeing places that I visited this summer. No updates today from Joe Pennant's Itinerant in NY blog. I hope Joe is ok.

Local journalism has been sloppy and irresponsible. I am normally a big fan of the music on KTSW but their live news coverage today is disturbing. The word "cowardly" gets used about ever 3 minutes and the continual stirring of passions of hate and vengeance is shameful.
posted by J.M. Branum at 2:10 PM | link

Internet traffic seems to have come to a crawl for many famous news websites... MSNBC, CNN, and NY Times. So far the best source for news that is still up is at The Washington Post
posted by J.M. Branum at 10:22 AM | link

All hell has broken loose today. What else can you say on a day like this?

I woke up this morning when my father called to tell me to turn on the TV because there had been a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

I know I shouldn't worry, but I can't help but worry about my friends who live in NYC, my friend Aimee who hopefully was in Greenwich Village and not downtown, and my friend Sonia who just moved there. Then I feel selfish to worry about my friends who are probably safe, when there are likely thousands of dead at WTC.

What can you say on a day like this? The only thing I do know is that it is "the end of the world as we know it" or rather, this is one more step in the rapidly accelarating pace of history. The great American empire is collapsing. Our culture of violence that has wreaked havoc on so much of the world is now turning on itself.

May God have mercy on us all.
posted by J.M. Branum at 10:10 AM | link

For Oklahoma legal research, visit www.researchbar.com/...
posted by J.M. Branum at 8:58 PM | link

Sorry for no posts over the weekend. Life, while good has been busy. OK, here's today's links of interest...

• From Theforce.net: Interview with Wierd Al Yankovich
  
• whatdoiknow.org a kick*** newsblog with an nifty anticorporate slant
  
• Mother Teresa was not possessed by the devil, exorcist confirms - Yeah, we were all worried about that.
  
• Also on the topic of creepy news items, The NY Times is reporting that that AOL/Time Warner (aka the evil corporate whore of Babylon) is trying to acquire AT&T's Cable division!
  
• In honor of the upcoming NFL season, here's a story on the President's nuclear "football."
  

posted by J.M. Branum at 5:15 PM | link