> tapioca world tour

People are fleeing Lebanon, or trying. I think of N., my former coworker, who last year returned to Lebanon with her husband and two little kids because, she thought, the violence was finally over. Now, even if they use their American passports to get out, the queue is over 15,000, and U.S. rescue efforts haven’t even gotten underway. What about the Lebanese without dual citizenship? Where do they go? And what about the Iraqis, too soon forgotten?

From Baghdad Burning:

Why don’t the Americans just go home? They’ve done enough damage and we hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they ‘cut and run’, but the fact is that they aren’t doing anything right now. How much worse can it get? People are being killed in the streets and in their own homes- what’s being done about it? Nothing. It’s convenient for them- Iraqis can kill each other and they can sit by and watch the bloodshed- unless they want to join in with murder and rape.

Buses, planes and taxis leaving the country for Syria and Jordan are booked solid until the end of the summer. People are picking up and leaving en masse and most of them are planning to remain outside of the country. Life here has become unbearable because it’s no longer a ‘life’ like people live abroad. It’s simply a matter of survival, making it from one day to the next in one piece and coping with the loss of loved ones and friends - friends like T.

Well well, it seems our fearless leader can’t continue his reign of unrestricted fascism without a slap on the wrist from people with actual law degrees. My favorite part of this article about the outcome of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is the part where W. is quoted as saying, “I’d like to close Guantanamo. I also recognize that we’re holding some people that are darn dangerous.”

Two years ago, the court rejected Bush’s claim that he had authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers. In this follow-up case, the justices focused solely on the issue of trials for some of the men.

The vote was split 5-3, with moderate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joining the court’s liberal members in most of the ruling against the Bush administration. Chief Justice John Roberts, named to the lead the court last September by Bush, was sidelined in the case because as an appeals court judge he had backed the government over Hamdan.

Thursday’s ruling overturned that decision.

I am going to go to CRINGE in Brooklyn and read all my journals from the early 90s into a microphone so a bunch of people can laugh at my embarassing, uncathartic adolescence.

You should too!

It was WMD at first, then it was Saddam, then it was Zarqawi. Who will it be now? Who will be the new excuse for killing and detaining Iraqis? Or is it that an excuse is no longer needed- they have freedom to do what they want. The slaughter in Haditha months ago proved that. “They don’t need him anymore,” our elderly neighbor waved the news away like he was shooing flies, “They have fifty Zarqawis in government.”

I thought this was interesting.

Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State was forwarded to me by my boss. It’s a pretty accurate summary of the incipient GOP-led downfall of our nation.

It’s playing at Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Harvard Sq. Cinema, and the Embassy in Boston. Watch the trailer or go to the film’s website.

Is it ridiculous to say that I hope Gore runs again for presidency? Wouldn’t it make people ask themselves, what would have happened had W. not bribed his way in last time? I mean, maybe people will give the guy another chance. He is a movie star now. Bitterness has fueled his rage and, possibly, his motivation, making him a little more edgy and entertaining in the process. Who knows, right?

Despite my misfortune of not being sent to the Save Darfur Rally in DC as the office photographer/videographer, lovely Claire did a fine job instead, saving the day with this shot of everyone’s favorite activist and filmmaker, Mr. George Clooney, to whom I’d love to write a letter, expressing my…admiration? Admiration. I’d love to work for the man, in any professional capacity.

Mr. Clooney, sir, your personal and political ethics inspire me. Let’s start a multimedia production company! We can co-direct! It’ll be AWESOME!

There are big Save Darfur rallies happening in San Fran and DC this weekend.

The other day, Sudanese Parliament member (also a human rights lawyer who’s a member of the opposition party against the government) Salih Mahmoud Osman came to work to give us an update about Darfur. I videotaped his presentation with Dr. Fashir, another Sudanese advocate, and will get a 2-minute clip from their presentation online over the weekend.

All this crazy stuff is happening. Correlatively, my mother’s coming to visit — tonight.

This is cool: U.S. campaign for Burma is starting an initiative to invite anyone with a camera to videotape a 10-minute or less birthday message to imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner and rightful leader of Burma, Aang San Suu Kyi. The initiative is called Beaming Burma and I think it’s a neat idea.

Visiting Southern Thailand last month was like a glorious punch in the gut for me: the staff of Grassroots HRE, who not only support undocumented Burmese workers in Thailand but are themselves undocumented workers in Thailand, were amazing. Their mutual support and commitment to a Free Burma was moving. Now I finally understand the real human struggle behind all those Free Burma bumper stickers. Every Burmese person I met was so kind, so humble, so helpful, and so very nationalistic — that is, to the Burma not imprisoned by a violent dictatorship.

That said, this is a cool video opportunity. Go to it!

“Treasures found near Jesus’ ‘Sea of Miracles’”
“LA woman has rare case of Bubonic Plague”
“Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise welcome a baby girl”

Dude, why are they feeding us pop culture poop? What real news do they NOT want us to know? At the bottom of all these headlines was a small blurb about McClellan’s resignation.

Nevermind world news, like the fighting and impending drought in Somalia, the religious riots in Egypt, or the rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Geeze, what is going on?

Totally!

How happy we are…

So, this weekend was interesting. We went to a fundraiser for City Life/Vida Urbana Saturday night, led by Steve Meacham, the tenant organizing coordinator, who delivered a moving speech about their ongoing initiaive to collectively bargain contracts with big city developers in lieu of rent control, a tactic that seems to be working. Anyway, it was a nice time, with great homemade hippie food — salad, beans, couscous, cake — all of which I puked up six hours later. Must have been something rotten in the salad. Oh well. Guess I’d better stick to processed foods.

Tonight there’s going to be an immigrant rights rally downtown by City Hall to protest the impending legislation against illegal immigrants in the U.S. It’s at 5p, for anyone in Boston interested.

Check it out — seems an intern discovered them at the bottom of a closet in the office, and now they’re being published, 40 years later. God bless interns.

This is so incredibly funny. (Watch the video)

Yeah, that’s right, I’m going to Indonesia and Thailand in two weeks. For human rights work stuff. We fly in east both times, which means going halfway around the world to get there, then the other half to get back. We’ll be doing follow-up tsunami reconstruction reporting, focusing largely on Burmese refugees doing forced work in Thailand. I take photos and write about it, eat curry, try not to get malaria, etc. Very exciting, no?

In other world news, let’s have a moment of silence for the 1500+ people in the Phillipines who died in the mudslide this morning. I think we’ve had enough of natural disasters for one lifetime.

At the end of the day, people who follow these figures tell themselves that even if the current leader isn’t up to par, the goal and message remain the same — religion, God’s word as law. When living in the midst of a war-torn country with a situation that is deteriorating and death around every corner, you turn to God because Iyad Allawi couldn’t get you electricity and security — he certainly isn’t going to get you into heaven should you come face to face with a car bomb.

Read Baghdad Burning.

Last night we attended State of the Union Bingo, hosted by my coworker. In a shocking testament to W’s speechwriter’s linguistic ability, I won with five health care, tax and terror references, diagonally. Let’s not discuss human-animal hybrids, or the embracing of natural energy research, or the cutaway of Hillary self-indulgently rolling her eyes. My God, what a great show.

In other news, do you know why us 30ish-year-olds can’t live like normal people? Because we’re the Indebted Generation, and it makes me want to bite things.

I’m going to see Mardi Gras: Made in China tomorrow after work, described accordingly: “David Redmon’s sly, engrossing documentary is an expert riposte to smug proponents of globalization.” Who wants to come with me?

I think it would be unfair not to mention Jill Carroll, whose detention many people think is a hopeless case, because it’s not hopeless yet and I think it’s the obligation of people with any shred of faith, not just those of us who share her religion, to pray about this situation, and others, as they arise. I can’t believe it’s Thursday already. The Monitor’s press conference I thought was professional and informative.