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Recent
Stories
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
Ron
Jacobs
Bush and Rummy's Drunken Drive-by
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
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Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
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Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
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Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
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Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
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Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
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Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
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April 12,
2003
Hell
of a Town
Whores
of Babylon: Bloomberg and the News
by
ADAM ENGEL
"In a bid to raise some extra cash
for the city, Mayor Bloomberg announced plans yesterday to sell
New York's good name to companies eager to tap into the city's
image as a vibrant, tough-as-nails metropolis"I don't think
you will see a big Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola sign across the front
of City Hall," joked Bloomberg. "The key is, we want
to keep it tasteful." The mayor offered few details, choosing
to leave those to the city's new chief marketing officer, Joseph
Perello, a branding expert whom Bloomberg also appointed yesterday
at an annual salary of $150,000." New
York Daily News, April 2, 2003
Don't laugh, Des Moines, Kansas City,
Butte you're next. Soon you too will be put to bed by
your respective mayor/dictators before eight pm all tucked in
with your feetsy pajamas and milk and cookies and you better
say your prayers or the boogey man'll jump outta yer closet before
you can say, "Hoboken."
"The City never sleeps" because
THE MAN is always watching.
Soon all you bar owners, despite your
eagle eyes for fake IDs, your hanging the flag in your windows
and keeping the televisions tuned to CNN or Fox will be forced
outta business because why the hell should a grown up have to
pay five dollars for a drink after a hard day's work and not
be allowed to light a fucking cigarette on your private property?
Might as well buy a six-pack and a box of butts and go home,
or find a place out in the woods or the park like you did when
you were free and seventeen.
What was that crap Sinatra sang? "I
want to be a part of it, New York, New York?" Yeah, he'd
be welcome in NYC with his booze and attitude and filter-less
Camels.
And what about you hard working patriots?
Doing the early 8 AM to 7 PM "nine to five" thing
with the commute and crowds and crappy job what is it you
DO anyway? and at the end of the day you can have a drink
if you want to ONE, or you'll be 12-stepping your way
to rehab but don't even THINK about lighting up unless
it's pot; I think, at least in NYC, the fine for that is a bit
more lenient.
"Either way, aides suggested, the
city has enormous marketing potential, possibly in the same league
as Nike or Disney. And with the city facing a $3.5billion budget
gap, it no longer can afford to pass up those dollars."
New
York Daily News, April 2, 2003
But forget about your selfish little
habits. There are important things to think about. Like selling
New York City to advertisers and corporations to "raise
money for the city." Like turning what was once an international
metropolis into a ridiculous, privately owned amusement park
"in the same league as Nike or Disney" (don't feel
too bad; can't smoke at Disney Land either).
Of course, maybe NYC wouldn't need to
raise money if it didn't have the world's largest police force
with nothing much to do but bust up protest rallies and hassle
black and Hispanic kids (oh, and Arab/southwest Asian kids too;
let's not forget about that melting pot). Or what if the Yankees,
the world's richest sports team, were to actually pay rent?
Or what if the corporations who own the place and rent, sue,
poison, medicate, educate, entertain, employ and insure its citizens
were to -- just a thought -- pay taxes?
'"Whether it is the [city's] energy
and the excitement, or more recently the resiliency and courage,
those are attributes that companies want to associate with,"
Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff saidMost independent ad executives
yesterday agreed, suggesting that New York could reap tens of
millions of dollars" Daily
News.
Yeah, takes a lot of courage and resiliency
to turn your common property over to billionaire politicians
and ad men.
"Everything the city buys, from
tires for the police cars, to paint for buildings, to uniforms
for park employees and trash bags for sanitation workers, those
are all products that could be put into a relationship with the
city," said Douglas Pirnie, a senior vice president at marketing
rights giant IMG.' New
York Daily News, April 2, 2003
So now you can be employed as a Garbage
Man and a Billboard at the same time. You won't earn anything
extra for advertising whatever corporation will sponsor the NYC
Sanitation department, but you'll be courageous and resilient.
And a non-smoker, if you know what's good for you.
Oh, it doesn't matter anyway. With every
block crammed with Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, The Gap, McDonalds,
and other unique New York establishments, not to mention the
monstrous electronic signs and screens of Times Square and all
the advertising lights of Broadway and the billboards at every
bus stop and on the buses and the wall-to-wall advertisements
in the subway cars, who really cares if Bloomberg sells whatever's
left of the City of New York to private corporations?
"But there would be limits, others
suggested, especially when it comes to the city's most revered
landmarks'It can't be the Statue of Liberty Mutual, or the Statue
of Liberty Media,' joked Jon Bond of the advertising firm Kirshenbaum
& Bond'That would be inappropriate.'But an official soap
of New York City? That you could sell, Bond joked. 'I mean, who
wants the official soap of Columbus, Ohio?' New
York Daily News, April 2, 2003
I wouldn't want the "official soap"
of Atlantis, to be quite honest. But really, what is left of
NYC to sell? Insects? Birds? Rodents? I suppose they could
stick clever decals its on cockroaches, rats and squirrels
and advertise URLs on pigeons, but otherwise, not to be a spoil
sport, everything's already been lifted.
A few questions though: Were there any
people interviewed by the Daily News who weren't involved in
government or marketing? Like, maybe, someone who lives here
and thinks he or she and the generations that built this City
might actually own the place? And what're they gonna do with
all those REDWHITEandBLUE flags left over from that "United
We Stand" fad? I knew it wouldn't last.
Adam Engel
is constantly in motion for fear some zealous ad-man might festoon
him with corporate logos and garish lights. He can be reached
at asengel@attglobal.net
Yesterday's
Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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