Go read Digby on why protests are important.

While Americans were watching footage of missiles and files on CNN, the House passed (215-212) the Bush budget which includes a $726 billion tax cut and an estimated deficit of at least $350 billion. Note that the deficit number does not include any estimate of the costs of the Iraq war. The White House is expected to submit a request next week for “emergency spending” of about $80 billion.

This is nice. We’ve started an unprovoked war that looks to much of the world like a crusade against Muslims. The House of Representatives responds by passing this resolution:

The nonbinding resolution, passed 400 to 7 with 15 members voting “present,” states that the phrase “one nation under God” in the pledge reflects the religious faith central to the founding of the nation and that its recitation is a patriotic act, not a statement of religious faith.

Does this sound particularly religious to those of you that believe in such things? As Slacktivist points out:

In other words, the phrase “one nation under God” an affirmation of America’s goodness and piety, not — as it would seem — a statement of humility before a sovereign God. The House resolution elevates patriotism above religious faith, and thus elevates America above God. This is more frighteningly imperial than anything even Richard Perle or John Bolton has said.

Belief in a sovereign God places rather severe limits on the kind of patriotism the House seems to favor. If religious faith — freedom of conscience — is made subordinate to a loyalty oath of patriotism, then the First Amendment is meaningless.

Casual snapshots of Iraqi people.

Some celebrities are going to demonstrate their commitment to peace at the Oscars by wearing expensive jewelry with diamonds.

I went to see John Adams’s El Niño at BAM tonight. Ugh. I think living in California has ruined his mind. Given the current state of the world, the last thing I want to hear is a religious work about Mary and the birth of Jesus. I live in a country whose president says he is a man of faith and God wants him to bomb Iraq to make us safe. Soaking in the most anti-woman, anti-human aspects of Christianity isn’t something I want to make time for. Let’s think about it: the only woman suitable to bear Jesus is a virgin, so the only really holy woman in Christianity does something no human woman can do: bear a child while remaining a virgin.

The music isn’t even particulary interesting, with a few exceptions, and I love a lot of Adams’s work — especially Nixon in China and Death of Klinghoffer.

For a better written take on the whole thing, go read James.

Speaking of queer culture, while getting the demo photos from my camera, I realized I had two good photos of Kiki from the March 3 performance. She really is a performance goddess.

The heavy rain made it depressing and wet, and the NYPD were pretty incompetent. They spent most of their time trying to figure out how to keep traffic moving despite big crowds, rather than dealing with crowd control in any intelligent way. We left as they started arresting people and pushing against them. We refused to move into any pens, and after seeing the Newsday photos, I’m glad.

James’s sign, suitable for a queer anti-war protest, quoted The Wizard of Oz. The other side said, “Toto Knew.”

Newsday has a good article. Don’t miss the slideshow with photos, including nice moments like the police using a barricade to shove protesters.

After reading this Reuters story, I feel like NYC is rather amateur. There were over 1000 arrests in San Franciso.

From The Guardian:

Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday in an attempt to break up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an army bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday.

Witnesses including several dozen foreigners and Palestinian supporters say Israeli armoured vehicles tried to disperse the gathering at the spot in Rafah refugee camp where Ms Corrie was crushed to death.

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