ALL MATT DAY AT REAL ART

That is, my old friend Matt, not to be confused with that Drudge guy.

Matt wrote me about Wesley Clark's entry into the the Democratic presidential nomination fray:

You know, I always love having a military type come out against a Republican. But I must admit, every time I see or hear Wesley Clark I expect him to start going on about "precious bodily fluids."

Of course Matt is referring to the fictional insane General Jack D. Ripper (played by Sterling Hayden) who instigates WWIII in the Stanley Kubrick directed dark comic masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb from 1964. Quite the grim comparison. I wrote back to Matt:

I think you've kind of hit on some of my misgivings about the guy. What's his deal, anyway? What's with the weird Arkansas/Clinton connection? So far, all I've been able to tell about Clark is that he's been inconsistent with his views on the Iraq war in his role as TV pundit. I like his criticism of Bush, but at this point even lots of conservatives are bashing the Chimp-in-Chief.

Indeed, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has released a statement about Clark's "anti-war views." Read on:

As time wore on, Clark's reservations seemed to give way. Clark explained on CNN (1/21/03) that if he had been in charge, "I probably wouldn't have made the moves that got us to this point. But just assuming that we're here at this point, then I think that the president is going to have to move ahead, despite the fact that the allies have reservations." As he later elaborated (CNN, 2/5/03): "The credibility of the United States is on the line, and Saddam Hussein has these weapons and so, you know, we're going to go ahead and do this and the rest of the world's got to get with us.... The U.N. has got to come in and belly up to the bar on this. But the president of the United States has put his credibility on the line, too. And so this is the time that these nations around the world, and the United Nations, are going to have to look at this evidence and decide who they line up with."

For the entire report, click here.

Right now, the most that I can say about Clark is that I really don't know much about him--that's a big minus from where I sit.

Matt also sent me a link to this story posted on AlterNet:

US Plan for Global Domination Tops
Project Censored's Annual List

The reminder that the media often reports the 'news" as fed to it by those in power, and skips past the real news – the reasons for the behaviors and policies – is good reason for the continued existence of Project Censored, a program in its 27th year that collects under-reported stories from around the country and compiles a list of the top 10 "censored stories" as well as 15 runner-ups. About 200 students and faculty from Sonoma State University compiled and reviewed the stories for Project Censored. The project describes its mission "to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those under-covered issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources."

Most of the stories on Project Censored's Top Ten relate to the US's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq. On the one hand, this emphasis indicates how the issue dominates the news, but on the other, how few news consumers really understand very little about how it happened and why. Taken together, these stories paint a chilling picture of a long-ranging plan to dominate huge sections of the globe militarily and economically, and to silence dissent, curb civil liberties and undermine workers' rights in the course of it. Some of the information published as part of the project is pretty shocking, like the fact that the US removed 8,000 incriminating pages from Iraq's weapons report to the UN; or that Donald Rumsfeld may have a plan to deliberately provoke terrorists so we can react. Other issues like the attacks on civil liberties have been covered in the mainstream press, but not in the comprehensive way Project Censored would like to see.

You've got to go read this list! Click here. And while you're at it, swing by the Project Censored site as well.

Thanks for the content, Matt.

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