The RNC Blogging has begun. Follow it here.

Posted by: annika at 09:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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During my extended blog hiatus, it may seem like i'm gone, but i wont be, really. There may even be some mysterious annika sightings now and then.

Posted by: annika at 11:23 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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So you know, blogging might be light this week and almost non-existent starting next Monday. Yesterday was the first day of orientation week. Classes start on the 23rd.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

My plan is to post weekly if at all possible, in the style of Anne...straight from the hip (quantity-wise, of course. i could never hope to match her quality-wise).

i'll still try to check in on my regular blog reading, because it's a pleasure i just can't give up that easily.

Besides, i need to taunt Rocket Jones mercilessly some more.

Posted by: annika at 12:30 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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i am officially big-time. Gennie of Dizzy-girl notified me that i got quoted on the Democratic Underground cranksite. Here's the post:

What a rightwing blog says about protests of Republican Convention

'We can expect a big freak show at the upcoming Republican Convention in New York. The far left nut jobs will ensure Bush's re-election, even though they will think they're doing the opposite. In fact, i hope they go on a total Bush-hatin' rampage in the streets of New York. Everyone knows who's side they're on, and the worse the protesters act, the more people will realize how low the Democratic Party has fallen.'

-The rightwing blog, Annika's Journal, July 26, 2004

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If you go, please wear business clothing (suit and tie for a man)
and please don't block traffic.

I'm expecting the police to taser and club peaceful protestors, and I hope things stay calm.

To paraphrase David Crosby: Let your freak flag fly baby!

Posted by: annika at 11:42 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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i've added a new button to my sidebar. Please check it out; i think it's a great idea.

Books For Soldiers is a soldier support site that ships books, DVDs and supplies to deployed soliders and soldiers in VA hospitals, via our large volunteer network.

If you have old, but usuable paperback books sitting around, collecting dust, why not send them to a solider [sailor, airman or marine] for a big morale boost?

Posted by: annika at 11:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Happy birthday to James Lileks. Everybody go over there and wish the king of bloggers a happy day!

Oh that's right. He doesn't have comments. In fact, he doesn't even want to be called a blogger. Oh well, happy happy anyway, James.

Posted by: annika at 12:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kenneth Timmerman's The French Betrayal of America is not on my personal reading list, so i'm grateful to Neil Uchitel for doing the reading and the reviewing so i don't have to.

. . . Timmerman shows how this inability of Europe, and especially the French, to wield power has made them pursue 'morally superior' means of checking AmericaÂ’s uncontested power. This is why Dominique de Villepin gave his speech before the U.N. stating that under no circumstances would France support AmericaÂ’s push for war. Not only did France have billions of dollars to lose from their oil contracts with Iraq . . . but it could simultaneously cover this hypocrisy and its inability to keep any rogue power in check (like their failure with the Serbs), but also keep itself among the power elite by morally upstaging America.

i'm anxious to see if the Timmerman book addresses whether Europe and the French government's coddling of extremist Islam is also part of a strategy to counter-balance America's military and economic advantage.

Posted by: annika at 11:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just a blurb on the nightly news to most of us? Twenty seconds of footage and then on to the next story? Hell, i'm just as guilty of it as anybody -- taking for granted what our guys are going through over there. Back here on the home front, we're so easily distracted by the election follies. We're bored. We have short attention spans.

Ironically, the mainstream media, often criticized for sensasionalizing the news, is partly to blame. Stories like this seem so sterile, mundane. Oh no, more fighting, we think. A soldier died. Damn, we were going good there for a few days. Maybe we say a prayer. Maybe we don't. Either way our ass is still on that comfy couch while it's someone else's in a sweat soaked DCU.

But then a blog like CBFTW's will jolt me back to reality.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't want to go back. Fuck that shit, I don't want to get killed. That was the last place on earth I wanted to be. I was scared to death. But we had to go back, and we did.

And thank the United States Army and Marines.

Via Blackfive, who else?

Update: The story is much more personal for Sarah.

Posted by: annika at 03:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Whatever happened to Rip On Matt Iglesias Week? While doing the research for the upcoming, and feverishly anticipated feature, i discovered that he is actually very boring, despite his impressive credentials. So i lost interest in the idea.

Coming next? A string of teasers related to a blog future feature entitled: Bang On Kevin Drum Week.

Posted by: annika at 09:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Here's some amazing war reportage from an artist embedded with the 1st Infantry Division in Baqubah, Iraq.

ThereÂ’s a huge bang; the 113 rocks and Ledlow, Cliat and Camp fall to the floor. IÂ’m afraid theyÂ’re dead. An RPG has just hit the side of our vehicle, between Cliat and Gayer, the driver. GayerÂ’s fallen too, and Theis is shouting at him through his headphones to get up. Smoke and the acrid smell of magnesium powder are everywhere.

Doc saw the RPG round fired at us by a man from behind a tree, his head covered in a black hood. Later, he says it looked like a baseball coming straight for us. Pulling himself back up, he locates the shooter in his rifle sight, peering from around the tree. Doc fires off two rounds and sees the man fall, but canÂ’t tell if heÂ’s killed him.

. . .

The RPGs are coming from our left; Ledlow has relieved Camp to defend that side. ThereÂ’s another terrifying explosion against the 113, as a grenade lands low on our left track, damaging but not disabling it. An armor piercing round, it destroys one of the plates, but somehow misses the pin, which would have cut the track and rendered us unable to move. Nevertheless, the sprocket canÂ’t engage and weÂ’ve come to a halt: Gayer canÂ’t get the vehicle to move forward. Theis tells him to reverse it and we lurch backwards.

'What the fuck are you doing?' Cliat shouts at Theis. 'You donÂ’t never go backwards in a firefight! Move this fucking thing forward! Forward!'

Thanks yet again to Sarah for finding this.

Posted by: annika at 10:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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