Random News & Views Roundup

- Canada's Conservative party will be spending some time in court after being sued by members whose nominations were refused without any stated reasons. I thought theirs was the party of transparency and accountability. Hmmm...

- Crisis in the Blair government. If he'd just tell everybody when he's actually going to quit, he could avoid resignations within his party.

- Think Progress reveals that ABC has refused to provide advance copies of its controversial docudrama The Path to 9/11 to former president Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger. Berger and Albright have written letters to ABC blasting the drama's version of the so-called facts it presents. E&P has more. Via Daily Kos, at least one ABC affiliate has said it will run disclaimers throughout the airing.

- During today's senate debate, Senator John Warner (R-VA) stated that one of the main reasons for US troops to remain in Iraq is in order to protect that country's oil reserves from falling into terrorist hands - thus providing them with a major source of funding. It's not about democracy. It's not about freedom. It's all about oil. I don't know how many times people have to be reminded about that fact before it actually sinks in. Meanwhile, the US has lost control of al-Anbar - a very serious setback that could affect the entire security situation in Iraq.

- Iraq is finally set to take command control of its forces on Thursday. As a few senators remarked during Wednesday's debate, Bush has repeatedly stated that as soon as the Iraqis stand up, the US will stand down. It's reported that 85% of Iraq's troops are trained and ready, yet Buscho still refuses to scale back its military operations. (See above re: oil) Also, take note of the last sentence in that AP article:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said the arrest of al-Qaida in Iraq's second in command took place in June and was the most significant blow to the terror network since the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Caldwell said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured on June 19 — not a few days ago as the Iraqi government had initially announced.

It's quite obvious that the announcement of that arrest was timed to coincide with Bush's little war on terror crusade in the press the past couple of weeks.

- Read about the complicity of the American Psychological Association in US torture.

- The big headline in Wednesday's Calgary Herald: Bush says Canada breeds terrorists. catnip's response: Bush Breeds Anti-Americanism.

- This is a bad phrasing choice for Michael Ignatieff: Ignatieff launches 'nation building' campaign at a time when the US empire is under fire for its nation building attempts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ignatieff's plan for Canada's future should surely have been given a name that would not evoke thoughts of those failures.

- Best Guess blog provides an in depth analysis of the major issues involved for Democrats and Republicans on this year's campaign trail.