May one thousand signs appear!

A missive from the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel of FreewayBlooger.com

In light of recent disclosures and testimony by Richard Clark, former head of Counterterrorism, I have no recourse but to call for the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush. This is not something I take lightly, particularly since it will require the painting and posting

Over the next ten days I’ll be posting up to one hundred of them in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and points in between. You can help in this effort by asking your readers to join in by painting the word “Impeach” in large letters on cardboard and sticking it on their local freeway. Thank you for your help.

-Scarlet P. the freewayblogger of many, many signs like the one shown here.

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George Bush, asleep at the wheel

Richard Clarke stole the spotlight at an extraordinary series of hearings into the Sept. 11 attacks, claiming President Bush hadn’t done enough to protect the country from terrorists.

A counterterrorism adviser to the past three presidents, Clarke accused the Bush administration Wednesday of scaling back the campaign against Osama bin Laden before the attacks and undermining the fight against terrorism by invading Iraq.

That’s the key point I think - that the invasion of Iraq has done nothing to stop terrorism but instead increased the possibility of it happening.

The picture emerging of the Bush Administration is that, under all their strutting machoism and belligerence, they are quite remarkably incompetent. Yet these hearings seem intent on various parties proving that By Golly, they are the toughest on terrorism. Meanwhile, it goes on. The Big Hammer approach doesn’t work, the Brits learned, or should have learned at any rate, in Northern Ireland.

To defeat terrorists, you must have a “better story”, a compelling reason for people to join your side, not theirs. Bombing them back to the Stone Age simply drives people to their side. Plus, you need to infiltrate them. And to do that you must 1) take them seriously and not think calling them Evildoers will accomplish anything and 2) learn about them, their culture, and what motivates them, because you can’t really stop them if you don’t understand them, can you?

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Linux going business mainstream

Hewlett-Packard Co. says it is yielding to large clients’ demands and expanding Linux distribution — a decision that could force Microsoft to reconsider some of its corporate pricing for Windows.

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Media Deconstruction Kit Online

A Project of the Experimental Party, who I don’t quite understand yet, but it’s fun watching what they’re doing.

The US Department of Art & Technology announces today new network and Internet service capabilities that transform an array of appropriated live news broadcasts - from advertisements to political pundancy, live news updates to cable network logos - and put the altered matter out on the Net. The Department believes these techniques could swamp the mass media with total illusion in 2004 as the election rhetoric ramps up.

“Today’s announcement is significant because it illustrates US DAT’s continued commitment to confront corporate control of mass media,” Secretary Randall M. Packer stated outside his office in Washington, DC, “so that a new century is spared new horrors of Fox News - the issue Americans should care most about.”

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