Times Square clock counts war cost

[gldstwmn]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle...toryID=6070919

Wed 25 August, 2004 22:30

By Mark McSherry

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A giant clock ticking the cost of the war in Iraq has lit up in Times Square, making its debut by flashing $134.5 billion (75 billion pounds).

The amount on the clock will grow at a rate of $177 million a day, $7.4 million an hour and $122,820 per minute, said the advocacy group Project Billboard which put it up.

Project Billboard is supported by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank headed by John Podesta who served as chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton.

The clock was unveiled just days before Republicans gather in New York for their national convention.

As intended, it caught the eye of many passersby in the busy intersection.

"Just think of the things you could do with that money," said tour guide Farah Perez. "No way am I voting for Bush."

The message may not reach everyone, however, as the clock sits above a much larger billboard of a woman wearing nothing but a pair of sneakers.

"First I saw the other billboard, but then I saw the cost of the Iraq war and the number took my breath away," said passerby Greg Boris. "Then I went back to looking at the other billboard.

"That money should be spent here in the United States," he added.

The new clock sits just a couple of blocks away from a spot where an earlier clock used to flash the growing size of the U.S. national debt.

This clock is part of a legal settlement reached between Project Billboard and Clear Channel Communications after the advocacy group sued the media giant for breaking a contract over the posting of an antiwar billboard in Times Square during this month's convention.

Clear Channel settled the case by agreeing to give Project Billboard two Times Square locations instead of one. In return, the group dropped its plan for a bomb graphic that Clear Channel said it found distasteful.

The advocacy group's other billboard displays a large peace dove and the words "Democracy Is Best Taught By Example, Not By War."

Both billboards are scheduled to run for four months, said a spokesman for Project Billboard

[ShangriLaTroubl]

How neat..look here I found one to put in my sig!!

thanks

chris

[dissention]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Clear Channel said it found distasteful.

Rather oxy-moronic, if I do say so myself.

[David]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

[url]NEW YORK (Reuters) - A giant clock ticking the cost of the war in Iraq has lit up in Times Square, making its debut by flashing $134.5 billion (75 billion pounds).

The amount on the clock will grow at a rate of $177 million a day, $7.4 million an hour and $122,820 per minute, said the advocacy group Project Billboard which put it up.

I wonder whether that clock would appear to slow down to observers on Earth as it approached the speed of light.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by David

I wonder whether that clock would appear to slow down to observers on Earth as it approached the speed of light.

Ha! If things keep going like they have been, we'll know pretty soon.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by ShangriLaTroubl

How neat..look here I found one to put in my sig!!

thanks

chris

Damn. I wish I would have thought of that.

[Livia]

"Just think of the things you could do with that money," said tour guide Farah Perez. "No way am I voting for Bush."

From her lips to the voters' ears!!

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by Livia

From her lips to the voters' ears!!

How is not voting for Bush going to slow down the cost of the war? Didn't Kerry have an anti-war protester arrested at the DNC in Boston?

Kerry or Bush, the war will continue. And the costs will continue escalating.

Kerry = Bush

[ShangriLaTroubl]

Originally Posted by CarneVaca

How is not voting for Bush going to slow down the cost of the war? Didn't Kerry have an anti-war protester arrested at the DNC in Boston?

Kerry or Bush, the war will continue. And the costs will continue escalating.

Kerry = Bush

I for one do not think that is really the point. I do not think the point in the clock is to show that voting for Kerry could slow down the costs, I think the point is to show that Bush is the reason we have those costs, period...and for many to understand what their "hero" Bush has cost our countries, and continues by the second...I don't think the point is to show that Kerry will be able to slow that down, but maybe to show that Kerry would have not created in the first place.

Chris

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by ShangriLaTroubl

I for one do not think that is really the point. I do not think the point in the clock is to show that voting for Kerry could slow down the costs, I think the point is to show that Bush is the reason we have those costs, period...and for many to understand what their "hero" Bush has cost our countries, and continues by the second...I don't think the point is to show that Kerry will be able to slow that down, but maybe to show that Kerry would have not created in the first place.

Chris

I understand what you're saying, though the folks quoted in the article don't seem to see it your way. They are going to vote for Kerry because Bush started the war. That's what they are saying. Yet Kerry two weeks ago said he would have still allowed Bush to wage war today. And he has hinted he will increase troops in Iraq even. So voting for Kerry to vote against the war is incongruous.

[Livia]

Carne, admit it - you're one of those people with a "Republicans for Kerry" bumper sticker on your car, aren't you?

I shall now return to avoiding the political threads...