Random News & Views Roundup

- Looks like Castro is dead, again. In other news, Elvis Presley is alive and is working as a WalMart greeter in Indiana (just as most of us suspected all along).

- Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11.

Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

- Bizarre, but such is the state of some of Canada's infrastructure:

Engineers in Montreal determined Friday night that there is a real risk of a downtown road collapse, prompting police to seal off a larger area after the discovery of a gaping crack in an underground tunnel that connects malls to the metro.
[...]
Engineers had earlier closed one block because of fears that the major street above could collapse unless it was reinforced.

Now that would have been one huge pothole.

- TPM: Right-Wing Launches Assault Against [John] Warner, Claims He ‘Hurts The Cause Of Freedom’. They really need to come up with new, even cornier slogans.

(There's been a lot of Iraq war-related news this week that I haven't been able to catch up on - not feeling well lately - but I plan to work on a lengthier post this weekend. Stay tuned.)

- A gaping hole has been found in the universe - no, not that huge empty space where Bush's brain is supposed to be - an actual astronomical phenomenon thingy.

- Another US "friendly fire" incident. This one killed 3 British soldiers in Afghanistan.

- From the Christian Science Monitor: An intensifying US campaign against Iran. And, Paul Craig Roberts offers his opinion piece on the warmongering at antiwar.com.

Lies, unprovoked aggression, and delusional expectations – the same ingredients that produced the Iraq catastrophe – all over again. The entire Bush regime and both political parties are complicit, along with the media and US allies.

- Assholes of the Week: Special Preachers, Priests and Clerics Edition. This one is a must read. Here's a sample:

*An unidentified Major in Iraq--a fundamentalist Christian pretending to be a "freethinker"--for attending the first meeting of atheist service members under the umbrella of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, then verbally berating the other attendees, accusing them of plotting against Christians and disrespecting soldiers who have died protecting the Constitution. He threatened them with punishment, shut down the meeting and said that he would do whatever it took to shut down future meetings. He forced attendees to stand at attention while he yelled, berated and humiliated them. One attendee had fled when the shouting started, and he found a foxhole to hide in.

- Lastly, if you're a fan of kos of Daily Kos, watch this video.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- When the going gets tough, the weak run to Baghdad for a photo op. Although, Bush and Cheney may just be hoping that Abu Gonzales runs into one of those pesky IEDs. Then they can literally kill two annoying birds with one stone: the Gonzales problem - gone - and they can blame Iran on top of it. Oh no, I'm starting to think like them...must be a virus...I'd better take some medication. There is medication, right?

- Mitt "Ken Doll™" Romney won the Iowa straw pall on Saturday. What a manly man:

AMES, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney won the first test of the 2008 White House race on Saturday, using a big wallet and broad organization to muscle aside a field of second-tier rivals in a low-turnout Iowa straw poll.

Hell, that description's almost porn film worthy. Show me your big wallet and your broad shoulders, muscle man. (Not that I've ever actually seen a porn film. *cough*)

- Some kind of beam was installed on the space station today. I think they may be planning to make the Canadian astronaut walk the plank. I hear he's been telling a lot of Bush jokes up there.

- Yasser Arafat was poisoned?

- The Bush administration is nervous about Musharraf's future - so much so that it's assessing Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Not only that:

Musharraf controls the loyalty of the commanders and senior officials in charge of the nuclear program, but those loyalties could shift at any point, officials say.

The United States is not certain who might start controlling nuclear launch codes and weapons if that shift in power were to happen.

That's comforting, isn't it? Musharraf tried his best to provide reassurance on Saturday, which might actually mean something if he wasn't in the middle of huge political mess (of his own creation).

- Gordon Prather: Challenging Bush’s Reality (on Iran).

- Ben Tripp: On Fleeing the Country (a good read)
 

Random News & Views Roundup

I didn't have internet access most of the day. (Yikes.) Time to catch up on what I missed:

- What if you screamed for your life and no one helped you? Get involved.

- Columnist Paul Jackson provides comic relief. Rob Anders = "rock star"? What else can you expect from a man who believes this:

I've contended for some time if Harper can win a majority, and he will, he will become a beloved PM of our nation, and will be able to hold the job for as long as he wants.

- With rumblings that Harper will soon shuffle his cabinet (code words for finally dumping the useless Gordon O'Connor) Steve at Far and Wide claims to have an exclusive on what the new cabinet will look like. (h/t penlan)

- Can someone please tell me why Canada cannot secure the release of Omar Khadr - the only known Canadian known to be held in Gitmo? Via The Independent:

The families of five former British residents incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for up to five years were celebrating after learning the men could finally be coming home within months.

The end of their ordeal was in sight after the Government formally requested the release of the five men, who had been living legally in the UK before they were picked up abroad by the American authorities.

All nine British nationals held in the notorious military base in Cuba were returned to this country by 2005, but Tony Blair had refused to intervene on behalf of another group of men legally resident in this country before their detention. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, announced a change of heart and raised the subject in talks last week with President George Bush. He was encouraged by signs that the White House is moving towards closing the camp. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, have written to Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to ask for the men's release.

Our gutless, heartless Conservative government refuses to do absolutely anything to help Khadr as other countries' detainees are going home. Write to your MP and demand action. This has gone on long enough.

- Michael Ignatieff performs some intellectual masturbation about intellectual masturbation and, somewhere in there, admits he was wrong to support the Iraq war. I may have missed it - because I passed out from boredom after he mentioned Machiavelli - but I don't suppose he's given that much thought to his vote to extend Canada's Afghanistan mission last year, has he? Maybe we'll have to wait a few more years until his next mea culpa NYT editorial to see that happen.

- Newsflash: Bush is a lying warmonger.

US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons -- an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"It's up to Iran to prove to the world that they're a stabilizing force as opposed to a destabilizing force. After all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," he said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

But Iran has repeatedly said that its nuclear program, which is widely believed in the West to be cover for an effort to develop atomic weapons, is for civilian purposes.

Asked to provide examples of Tehran openly declaring that it seeks atomic weapons, White House officials contacted by AFP said that Bush was referring to Iran's defiance of international calls to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

Looks like they'll have to cook up a newly forged Niger yellowcake letter to make that one fly.

- Meanwhile, some young Iranian cyclists have been very busy riding across Europe, the UK and the US as part of their "Miles For Peace" campaign. Perhaps if warmongering westerners actually saw real-life Iranian people besides Ahmadinejad, they might think about the repercussions of possibly bombing Iran. Then again...history has proven otherwise, hasn't it?

- The Asia Times offers an in depth look at tensions within Iran from insurgent groups and possible US involvement in supporting those activities.

- Uri Avnery on White Elephants.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- So much for Obama's hawkish foreign policy:

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan accused Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of "sheer ignorance" for threatening to launch US military strikes against Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil.

- So the White House thumbed its nose at having Karl Rove testifying before the senate committee investigating the US attorneys scandal and his aide, Scott Jennings, showed up and refused to answer "at least a dozen questions". Like getting blood from a stone.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, asked Jennings, "Where is Karl Rove? Why is he hiding? Why does he throw a young staffer like you into the line of fire while he hides behind the White House curtains?"

Because he's an arrogant asshole, Dick. Next question?

- I'd sure like to know where the Bush administration finds these clueless people who apparently all live on Fantasy Island:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he was discouraged by the resignation of the Sunnis from Iraq’s cabinet and that the Bush administration might have misjudged the difficulty of achieving reconciliation between Iraq’s sectarian factions.

In one of his bluntest assessments of the progress of the administration’s Iraq strategy, Mr. Gates said, “I think the developments on the political side are somewhat discouraging at the national level.” He said that despite the Sunni withdrawal, “my hope is that it can all be patched back together.”

I guess democracy's a quilt now.

He acknowledged that when the Bush administration decided to send the additional troops, “We probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which, let’s face it, is not some kind of secondary issue.”

"might have"? "probably"?? Sheesh.

- Proof that Republicans are partisan idiots:

WASHINGTON -- Congress struggled Thursday over giving the government more power to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists, bogged down by concerns about the man who would oversee the plan _ Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
[...]
Gonzales "is clearly one of the concerns that has been expressed by the Democratic leaders," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters.

"But at the end of the day, there has to be a way for our intelligence and counterintelligence agencies to collect data from known terrorists," Boehner said. "And we shouldn't let personalities get in the way of protecting the American people."

One of the most corrupt and torture-loving AGs ever and Boehner thinks it's a personality issue? That's exactly why America is so bloody screwed up.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- The US house of representatives has been busy passing resolutions about other countries' behaviour this week. On Tuesday, it approved a resolution calling for Japan to apologize for its use of female sex slaves during WW2. And on Monday, it unanimously passed another resolution demanding that Canada end the seal hunt. Apparently this hectic agenda - wagging their collective fingers at other countries - is the reason Pelosi has determined that the Democrats are just too darn busy to take care of urgent American business like impeaching Gonzales, Cheney and Bush and ending the Iraq war.

- The UN security council has decided to send 26,000 African peacekeeping troops to Darfur.

The Bush administration welcomed the council's decision to adopt the resolution, but it declined to co-sponsor the resolution on the grounds that it was not tough enough, a U.S. official said. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called for an expedited transition from the African Union to the United Nations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Ban in recent days to press him to take over the mission by October [instead of December]. Ban refused on the grounds that his military planners would not be ready.

And we all know what a fine military planner Condi is. If Bush wanted "tough", he could have addressed the crisis in Darfur years ago. All hat, no cowboy - as usual.

- Uri Avnery: A Warning to Tony Blair

As an expert on the global economy, with a worldwide perspective, Wolfensohn could also point out that the importance of the U.S. in the world economy is gradually declining, with new giants like China and India rising.

We, the Israelis, like to think that we are the center of the world. Wolfensohn, a person with a worldwide outreach, sticks a pin into this egocentric balloon. Already now, he says, only the West considers the Israeli-Palestinian issue so important. Most of the world is indifferent. "I have visited more than 140 countries: you are not such a big deal there."

Even this limited interest will also evaporate. Wolfensohn rubs salt into the wound: "A moment will come when the Israelis and the Palestinians will be compelled to understand that they are a secondary performance. … The Israelis and the Palestinians must get rid of the idea that they are a Broadway performance. They are only a play in the Village. Off-off-off-off-off Broadway." Knowing that this is the worst one can tell an Israeli, he adds: "I hope that I am not getting into trouble by saying this, but, what the hell, that's what I believe, and I am already 73 years old."

I do believe him – and I, what the hell, am already 83.

- Chris Floyd: Why the Bush Administration Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations; Good News is No News.

Last week, the Guardian's Ian Black reported on "a remarkable recantation" by one of the founding figures of the modern jihadist movement, Sayid Imam al-Sharif. A former comrade-in-arms of Ayman al-Zawahiri -- al Qaeda's own Dick Cheney, the "deputy" who actually runs the gang -- Sharif was the mastermind behind the Islamists' first great "spectacular": the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Now Sharif, imprisoned in Egypt, is finishing a new book "that undermines the Muslim theological basis for violent jihad" and is already creating fissures throughout the Islamist movement, the Guardian reports.
[...]
The fact that some major figures in one of these factions are now renouncing the use of "killing operations" to advance their odious ideas is surely a welcome development. If it saves only one innocent life from destruction, that is cause enough for rejoicing.

Yet this process -- which began in some quarters years before 9/11, and now involves hundreds of jihadist leaders and activists -- is being ignored by the very people who, ostensibly, have the greatest reason to trumpet it. But of course, such a development is actually bad news for the fanatical militarists of the Bushist faction. They ignore, reject or twist anything that undercuts their cartoonish myth of a vast, monolithic "Islamofascism" bent on world conquest at any cost -- and capable of carrying it out, unless stopped by multitrillion-dollar American war machine ranging over every continent.

- Via Dahr Jamail's Dispatches: Ali al-Fadhily's A Little Easier to Occupy from the Air

BAGHDAD, Jul 31 (IPS) - Many Iraqis believe the dramatic escalation in U.S. military use of air power is a sign of defeat for the occupation forces on the ground.

U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped five times as many bombs in Iraq during the first six months of this year as over the first half of 2006, according to official information.

They dropped 437 bombs and missiles in Iraq in the first half of 2007, compared to 86 in the first half of 2006. This is also three times more than in the second half of 2006, according to Air Force data.

The Air Force has also been expanding its air bases in Iraq and adding entire squadrons. It is now preparing to use a new robotic fighter known as the Reaper. The Reaper is a hunter-killer drone that can be operated by remote control from thousands of miles away.

"We find it strange that the big strategists of the U.S. military have actually failed in finding solutions on the ground and are now back to air raids that kill more civilians than militants," former Iraqi army brigadier-general Ahmed Issa told IPS.

That's the same strategy they're using in Afghanistan and look how well that's turned out.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- A happy puppy/Good News™ Iraq editorial in the NYT - "A War We Just Might Win" - is taken on by Glenn Greenwald:

The Op-Ed is an exercise in rank deceit from the start. To lavish themselves with credibility -- as though they are war skeptics whom you can trust -- they identify themselves at the beginning "as two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's miserable handling of Iraq." In reality, they were not only among the biggest cheerleaders for the war, but repeatedly praised the Pentagon's strategy in Iraq and continuously assured Americans things were going well. They are among the primary authors and principal deceivers responsible for this disaster.

Worse, they announce that "the Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility," as though they have not.

read on...

- Pollack and O'Hanlon have obviously not read this Oxfam report about the horrible plight of children in Iraq either. The humanitarian crisis there doesn't fit with their cheerleading talking points, obviously.

- While they're at it, they might also want to read this: "Misunderstanding Moqtada al-Sadr".

- Supreme court justice John Roberts had a "benign idiopathic seizure" (cause unknown) on Monday and has apparently "fully recovered". He had a similar seizure back in 1993. (h/t penlan)

- Sad news. Reportedly, (but not yet confirmed) a second South Korean hostage has been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

- Condi and Sec Def Robert Gates are over in the ME handing over billions of dollars in "military aid". Fear not. It's not like they're aiming to start a full-scale ME war or anything. (cough cough)

- Senator Ted "The internet is a series of tubes" Stevens' (R-Alaska) home was searched on Monday "focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation, a law enforcement official said." I wonder if Stevens cleaned out his tubes before the cops showed up.

- Via The Independent, the headline: " Britain will take troops out of Iraq regardless of US, says PM"

And a quote:

President Bush heaped praise on Mr Brown after their first meeting since he became Prime Minister, playing down suggestions that Mr Blair's departure would weaken the strong US-UK partnership. Revealingly, Mr Brown did not return the personal compliments, instead focusing on the historic links between the two countries and predicting they would get even stronger. This reflected his desire for a more business-like relationship with the President, instead of the strong personal bond forged by Mr Blair.

It also reflects the fact that Bush won't be making many new friends any time soon - except for those he can buy.

- Ujjal Dosanjh on the Conservative government's handling of the Afghanistan war: "“Canadians need to know who's in charge here,”. Well, with a useless defence minister like Gordon O'Connor, we know it can't (and shouldn't) be him.

In Ottawa, General Rick Hillier seemed to contradict Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's optimistic predication that the Afghans would be taking on most of the front-line combat by next spring in Kandahar province, where Canada's powerful battle group is waging a tough counter-insurgency war against the Taliban.

“It's going to take a long while,” Gen. Hillier told CTV's Question Period, referring to the training of the Afghan National Army. “We've just started the process.”

Umm...what??

Also of note, when Conservative mouthpiece John Reynolds was on Sunday's CTV Question Period he actually said that he didn't think the war would be a major issue during the next election. I think Reynolds has been getting just a little too much sun - or maybe not enough.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- There's a good article in Adbusters about North American integration aka the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) – a plan critics have called “NAFTA on steroids.”" Check it out.

- If you're a fan of Dahr Jamil's MidEast Dispatches - real, unembedded reporting from Iraq - or even if you've never heard of him, you should listen to his interview on antiwar.com radio. Describing Baghdad as "hell" really is an understatement considering what's really going on there.

- Rice insists that Cheney backs diplomacy with Iran.

Rice was responding to remarks by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. ElBaradei had told BBC Radio that the world risked a war in Iran because of "new crazies who say, 'Let's go and bomb Iran.' "

Asked who the "new crazies" were, ElBaradei replied, "Those who have extreme views and say the only solution is to impose your will by force."

Cheney, a major advocate of war with Iraq, is regarded as a hawk on Iran and recently made a tough speech denouncing the Islamic republic from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Who do you trust? Rice or ElBaradei?

Here's Cheney's definition of "diplomacy":

BRUSSELS, May 11 — Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of an American aircraft carrier just 150 miles off Iran’s coast as the backdrop today to warn the country that the United States was prepared to use its naval power to keep Tehran from disrupting off oil routes or “gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.”

By the way, Dahr Jamail also addresses the US policy towards Iran in the above linked radio interview.

- The video of heavy artillery fire and tanks storming the Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon on Friday is extremely depressing.

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Advancing under a blanket of artillery and tank fire, Lebanese troops overran positions held by al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp on Friday and 19 people were killed.

Artillery and machinegun fire shook Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon from early morning to well into the night. At times shells exploded at a rate of 10 a minute.

Security sources said at least 16 people were killed inside the camp, as well as three soldiers, after the fiercest fighting in two weeks.
[...]
At least 84 people -- 35 soldiers, 29 militants and 20 civilians -- had been killed before Friday.
[...]
More than 25,000 of Nahr al-Bared's 40,000 Palestinians have fled to the smaller Beddawi camp nearby.

Isn't there already enough death and destruction? Those Lebanese weapons are, of course, happily provided by the US government in this proxy war against Syria.

- Whose bright idea was this?"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. architectural firm posted drawings of the new U.S. Embassy being built in Baghdad on its Web site, prompting complaints from U.S. officials on Friday that their release could endanger U.S. personnel.

- How is Iraq's oil money, which is supposed to benefit the Iraqi people, being spent?

UNITED NATIONS -- More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

I should add that while the Bush administration is critical of the work this UN team is doing, it (obviously) has no moral high ground to stand on whatsoever (about anything) when it comes to complaining about money being wasted in Iraq. After all, they've sent billions of dollars in cash to Iraq via pallets on airplanes and lost some $8.8 billion in the process. It just really is all quite insane, isn't it?

- Canada is so special that it shouldn't have to do what other G8 countries do when it comes to dealing with that global warming stuff.

Liberal MP David McGuinty called Harper's plea for special consideration "theatre of the absurd."

"I've been doing this for 20 years and I have never heard anything as absurd – on the international diplomatic level, on this international environmental issue – anything as absurd as this. Ever.

"(Other countries) tell us they're paying the price and biting the bullet, and working feverishly hard to achieve their Kyoto targets. But they're not going out to the world and saying, 'We're special! We're sooo special!' "

Be prepared to be ridiculed by your government at yet another international meeting. You can start cringing and hiding under your desks now.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- Citing concerns about "financial realities" brought on by "college-age children and two decades of public service" (well, that's more creative than leaving to "spend time with his family" - although just about as credible), US deputy AG Paul McNulty announced his resignation on Monday:

McNulty began work as Gonzales's deputy in November 2005. McNulty became a central figure in the furor after he told the Senate Judiciary Committee in February that the White House played only a marginal role in the dismissals -- a characterization that conflicted with documents later released by Justice and with subsequent testimony.

He also said most of the prosecutors were fired for "performance-related" reasons. That statement angered many of the former U.S. attorneys, most of whom had sterling evaluations and had remained largely silent about their departures.

- The US military has called off its massive search involving some 4,000 soldiers who were combing the Iraqi countryside for 3 missing comrades after an alleged al-Qaeda related group posted a statement on a website stating that they had been captured and warning that the search should end.

Al Qaeda suggested it attacked the convoy as revenge for the rape and murder of a teenager last year in the same area.

"Remember what you have done in this place. You have violated our sister Abeer al-Janabi," it said, referring to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old and the killing of her family in Mahmudiya in March 2006.

A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in a military prison after pleading guilty in a case that enraged Iraqis.

...not to mention the rest of the world.

Correction: The search continues, despite the warning.

- Pentagon propaganda:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Monday released the names of six former Guantanamo detainees who U.S. officials say re-emerged as Islamist fighters in
Afghanistan after their release from the U.S. military prision in Cuba.
[...]
"While we have long maintained that we would like to close Guantanamo, there are a number of highly dangerous men who if released would pose a grave danger to the public," explained Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon.

That's 6 out of how many who've been released? Meanwhile,:

WASHINGTON, May 14 — The military system of determining whether detainees are properly held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, includes an unusual practice: If Pentagon officials disagree with the result of a hearing, they order a second one, or even a third, until they approve of the finding.

That's pretty darn handy. Imagine if the regular justice system worked that way.

These “do-overs,” as some critics call them, are among the most controversial parts of the military’s system of determining whether detainees are enemy combatants, and the fairness of the repeat hearings is at the center of a pivotal federal appeals court case.

And so they should be...

- After months and months and months of endless lineups and complaints regarding the constipated passport application system, the so-called "new" Conservative government has decided that maybe it should actually do something about the problem. Peter Mackay: useless as teats on a boar. Maybe US ambassador David Wilkins, who's warning everybody to get a passport (when you only need one for air travel into the US at this point), had a little something to do with Mackay's sudden awakening.

- Flippin' and a floppin': Duceppe and Flaherty.

- Pro-Palestinians in Canada to boycott bookshops owned by IDF donor

Pro-Palestinian Groups in Canada have launched a campaign to boycott a chain of bookstores owned by Jewish billionaire Gerry Schwartz, who donates money to lone IDF soldiers.

Schwartz and his wife Heather Reisman established the Heseg Foundation two years ago which supports hundred of lone soldiers serving in the IDF. The foundation donates roughly three million dollars a year.

The Coalition against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Canada launched a campaign last week for a consumer boycott of Chapter and Indigo bookstores, which are owned by Schwartz and Reisman.

You'll recall that Schwartz and Reisman left the Liberal party in 2006 and threw their support behind Harper during the Israel/Lebanon war - the same war that the majority of Israelis now want Olmert, whose approval numbers are basically 0%, to resign over.

- Red Cross Report Says Israel Disregards Humanitarian Law

JERUSALEM, May 14 — The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a “general disregard” for “its obligations under international humanitarian law — and the law of occupation in particular.”

The committee, which does not accept Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, says Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law “in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory.”

Random News & View Roundup

- Following up on last week's stunning testimony about a warning given to a senior RCMP officer prior to the Air India disaster, which James Bartleman has kept under his hat for 22 years, the inquiry judge said on Monday that the government is now trying to "discredit" him.

Ottawa — The head of the Air-India inquiry is accusing the federal government of trying to undercut James Bartleman's startling testimony about what transpired in the days leading up to the deadly 1985 bombing.

John Major, in a pointed intervention at the hearings Monday, observed that there seems to be an “effort by government to discredit Mr. Bartleman.”

The former Supreme Court justice went on to express concern that Gordon Smith, Mr. Bartleman's former boss at the Foreign Affairs Department, appeared to have aligned himself with that effort.

“You're just falling into line with the others,” Mr. Major interjected as Mr. Smith was fielding questions from lawyers.

“I'm not questioning your sincerity, but it's obvious that they don't like that testimony (by Mr. Bartleman). You are one of several who seem upset by that evidence.”

This is all quite bizarre. So many questions...

- Euegene over at Le Reve Gauche has a great roundup of reactions to the Alberta PC party's decision to reject rent controls. I wonder how many of their members live in rentals where the cost has increased $1000/month lately.

- Oh come on already: just give Wolfowitz his walking papers and be done with it. Why do the Europeans feel they have to make a deal with the Americans to let them pick the next World Bank sockpuppet? Wolfowitz broke the rules. Send him packing. End of story.

- FYI: May 8 is World Red Cross Red Crescent Day.

- Remaking the Peace Movement -
The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement

The New York Times ran a story May 6 called With New Clout, Antiwar Groups Push Democrats. In the first sentence of the story the Times reports that, "Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members in the House and the Senate."

The "anti-war" groups the article refers to are not your standard, every-day peace group, that have long been working to end the war. They are talking about more recently formed groups, funded with more than $7.1 million since January, to go out and take control of the anti-war message and to capture the bulk of mainstream media coverage about the anti-war movement. Thus groups like Win Without War, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, National Security Network, MoveOn, and others are being heavily funded by foundations close to the Democratic Party and are being largely directed by Democratic Party strategists.

The Times reports, Rodell Mollineau, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid's office, "said the coalition amplifies what Democrats are trying to do in Washington to end the war." "It helps us reverberate a unified message outside the Beltway." "These groups give voice to a message we're trying to get outside."

The unified message that the Democrat leaders are talking about is that the mess in Iraq is all the fault of George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress. This theme is now dominating the work coming out of these Democratic Party front groups and their job is to make sure that no one points any fingers of responsibility at the Democrats in Congress who continue to fund the occupation. We are not supposed to talk about that unsettling fact.

To their credit the Times did mention that there is currently some controversy surrounding this Democratic led effort. They write, "There's a dividing line between those groups who feel the most important thing is to be clear on bringing the troops home as soon as possible, and the groups that feel that unity within the Democratic Party is most important and the most important thing is for the Democrats to win the White House," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink, an antiwar group that is not part of the alliance. "So the groups who feel the most important thing is to win the White House would naturally be more inclined to listening to Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she says the only way we can get a vote through is if we water it down."

- Uvi Avnery: The Real Question Isn't Why Olmert Started the War in Haste, But Why He Started It At All.

Yes, Olmert must indeed go home. We need a new leadership, one that understands that Israel will know tranquility only if we make peace with the Palestinians, even when the price is the dismantling of settlements. Is this being discussed seriously? Would this demand draw hundreds of thousands to the square? Of course not.

Random News & View Roundup

- Meet the new, accountable government: Tory minister racks up $149,389 in plane rentals, declares zero air fare. Yesiree, that's quite the way to kick off “Democratic Reform Week" - a week designed to highlight the minority government's accountability measures.

- If you were concerned about last year's secret "Deep Integration" meeting in Banff, you should read this.

- Just what the world needs, she said sarcastically, another right-wing leader: Sarkozy takes French presidency. Of course they always give rousing, inclusive victory speeches. Then reality sets in...

Although a centre-right president will replace a centre-right president on 16 May, M. Sarkozy, 52, represents a much harder, less compromising kind of right-wing politics.

- Limbo time! Bush's approval rating hits a new low of only 28%. How low can he go?

- Use Facebook? Watch this.

- Gideon Levy has harsh words for anti-Olmert protesters asking them where they were during the Israel/Lebanon war and who will end up taking Olmert's place. If it's Netanyahu, it's definitely more of the same - or worse.

Haim Israeli, a long-serving but now retired civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, said: “He’s a dangerous man.”
[...]
A close friend of Netanyahu said: “He won’t wait too long to attack Iran.” As for the Palestinians, it seems unlikely that he would make territorial compromises with them.

“A shaky hand is holding David’s sword these days,” Netanyahu told Olmert last week. “The restoration of our might is a matter of life or death.”

Meanwhile, Olmert's government is fracturing. It's only a matter of time before it falls apart.

- An innocent old man, yet they shot him

My cousin Sabah took me to the checkpoint where his father died, not far from his home on the outskirts of Kirkuk. Kakarash had gone out first thing in the morning, before breakfast, to get petrol before the queues built up. As luck would have it, I found several eyewitnesses who had seen the whole incident.

One of them was an Iraqi soldier who had been on duty at the checkpoint. 'When the Americans are here we have to stop all the cars, but your uncle was distracted and kept driving,' he told me. 'The Americans shot a bullet into the ground to warn him - he didn't stop but tried to turn away and the Americans started shooting at him, thinking he might be a suicide car bomb.'

A group of local men, clearly distressed by what they had seen, told me the soldiers kept on firing after my uncle had turned around and tried to get away. 'They obviously shot to kill him,' one man told me. 'If not, they could have stopped after the first shot, they could have given him a chance to see what was he going to do next, but they just shot him dead.'

I went to see the car in a local garage. I counted 86 bullet holes.

Random News & Views Roundup

- Drudge reports a lie about CNN reporter Michael Ware. Powerline repeats it. Ware fights back with video. Power Line has to add a corrective update. Other right-wing blogs try to cover their sorry asses. It doesn't work. Just another day in the right-wing blogosphere. (Update: McCain is still living in Neverland.)

- The Supreme Court rules against the Bush administration in a global warming case. Senator Inhofe's head explodes and the Weather Channel's ratings go through the roof.

- What CNN didn't tell you earlier today: the missing American man in Kish, Iran is a former FBI agent. No one knows what happened to him. Was it smart for the State Department to reveal that information? I don't think so.

- US authorities snooping in your Canadian bank accounts? No problem. We all trust the Bush administration, don't we?

- More horror:

Baghdad - A truck bomber carrying food supplies killed eight Iraqi schoolgirls and a baby in the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Monday as suspected Sunni militants executed 21 Shiite workers north of Baghdad.

- Truth:

Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.


It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.

And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

more...

Random News & Views Roundup

- Karl "MC" Rove raps (video). I throw up a bit in my mouth.

- As I wrote about here Bush cited Iraqi bloggers from Iraq the Model in his speech to the Cattlemen's Association on Wednesday to prove there's "success" happening but, as E&P's Greg Mitchell points out:

(March 28, 2007) -- This is how far he, and his argument for continuing the slaughter in Iraq, have fallen: President Bush today was reduced to quoting two anonymous bloggers from Baghdad.

He cited them as evidence that his surge/escalation is working. One problem: their posts were written weeks ago, and re-published in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.

So the bloggers weren't even talking about current conditions in Baghdad. That left it to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post -- and author of the heralded 2006 book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" -- who appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown" tonight to debunk this idea of a newly-safe Baghdad. "I talk to Iraqis all the time," he said.

He revealed that there had been steady insurgent mortar shots falling in the supposedly safe "Green Zone" all week, at least two Americans had died there in recent days, and U.S. Embassy staff had been instructed, in a switch, to wear their protective armor and helmets outside at all times. He also disclosed that the embassy's pool, scene of much partying in the recent past, has now been declared off-limits. All of this and more appears in a Post "Green Zone" article on Thursday.

Another day, another Bush screw up...but they're winning!, right?

- By the way, John McCain is on his way to Iraq where I'm sure he'll be able to enjoy that leisurely stroll through the streets of Baghdad that he's been touting all week. Send us a postcard, John. Well, that is, as long as you're not bothered by things like this while you're out there looking for a souvenir shop:

In Baghdad, 13 dumped bodies were recovered. A car bomb exploded at a major intersection in Bayaa, killing three people and injuring ten others.

- If you believe this headline, I have some really nice swampland to sell you: U.S. says not escalating tension with Iran. Tomorrow's headline: US Says the Sky is Green.

- The power of attempted suppression:

News that Channel 4 is to broadcast a controversial film called Mark of Cain, written by Tony Marchant, about British soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners in Basra in 2003, comes hard on the heels of a controversial book by the American sociologist Bob Lilly at long last finding a British publisher - Palgrave Macmillan.

Lilly's book, Taken by Force, was first published in France in 2003, and then in Italy in 2004, but initially failed to find either an American or British publisher. As one American publisher explained to Lilly, professor of sociology at Northern Kentucky University - "I wouldn't touch that book with a 10-foot long pole", given that the subject matter was concerned with the estimated 14,000 rapes committed by American soldiers in England, France and Germany between 1942 and 1945.

In short, at a time when "French fries" and "French toast" were being renamed "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast" because, unlike us, the French refused to join the Bush administration's war in Iraq, the American public did not want to be told that their fathers, uncles and brothers who had fought in the second world war - that "Band of Brothers" as the historian Stephen Ambrose christened them, and whose status as the "greatest generation" had been cemented by Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan - had, in fact, been involved in some of the worst crimes on mainland Europe, including black-market trading, armed robbery, looting, rape and murder.

Couldn't have that published while America was at war, after all, now could we? Truth is bad for morale.

- Saudi King Abdullah:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 28 — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq was illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settled their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics.

When Bushco is even losing the Saudis, you know there are big problems...

Turki al-Rasheed, who runs an organization promoting democracy in Saudi Arabia, said the king was “saying we may be moving on the same track, but our ends are different.”

“Bush wants to make it look like he is solving the problem,” Mr. Rasheed said. “The king wants to actually solve the problems.”

Well, it would be nice if somebody would actually solve "the problem". I don't really care who it is.

- Kyle Sampson is set to testify about AttorneyGate (or whatever the kids are calling it) on Thursday. You can catch it on CSPAN online.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- Springtime Subpoena Fest! Better than a hot dog-eating contest by a country mile.

- Albertans slacking on environmental actions:

Fifty-seven per cent of Quebecers polled said they are promoting better behaviour toward the environment, while only 36 per cent of Albertans said they are doing the same.

Well, why bother? All of that pollution coming out of the oilsands projects is going to kill us anyway. /snark

- Did you know that today is World Water Day? This year's theme is water scarcity.

- With all of the political sparring in Canada lately over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, one thing I haven't heard an opinion about from our prime minister (unlike, say the Netherlands foreign minister and representatives of the US and UK) is what he has to say about Italy cutting a deal with the Afghan government to free 5 jailed Taliban commanders in exchange for one of its citizens.

- By the way, if our prime minister doesn't care about the fate of detainees in Afghanistan (and they are not all confirmed members of the Taliban), then why does he even bother with the Geneva Conventions or agreements to protect their rights? His attitude endangers our troops. Period. Did he even notice the fallout from the Abu Ghraib scandal? Disrespect human rights and you place soldiers' lives in even more peril.

- From the "why did Gates say that?" file:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned on Thursday the Army would face problems without emergency funds but insisted U.S. forces could fight a third war despite being stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is scheduled to vote on tougher Iran sanctions on Saturday.

- College Republican groups in the US are holding blatantly racist anti-immigrant events:

This week, Boise State University College Republicans have joined the list of College Republicans who have held anti-immigrant "games" by creating a despicable ad to promote a conservative speaker on campus. The ad advertises a food stamp drawing and a free meal at a "Mexican restaurant" for students who "climb through the hole in the fence" and submit illegal identification. This recent derogatory stunt comes on the heels of national news reports that confirm the rise in hate groups who are feeding off of anti-immigrant sentiments. Sadly, while these activities continue on America's campuses and while Republican presidential candidates use harsh words on immigration for political gain, the national Republican Party has remained quietly on the sidelines.

It has been three weeks since Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and DNC Hispanic Caucus Chair Ramona Martinez sent a letter to RNC General Chairman Mel Martinez regarding the despicable conduct of College Republicans. The Republican Chairman has yet to respond.

Sick, sick people.

- LA's Vicious War on the Homeless:

On the morning of February 8, a white hospital van stopped a few feet from a curb in Los Angeles' skid row area. According to witnesses, a man wearing a soiled hospital gown fell through the doors, and the van, later connected with Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, drove away.

The man, a paraplegic, began crawling down the street, a bag of his belongings clutched in his teeth and a colostomy bag dragging behind him. Other homeless people helped the disoriented man into a nearby park, just before police called an ambulance.

This horrible scene came just three months after the city attorney's office filed an indictment against Kaiser Permanente for dumping a 63-year-old patient on the streets of skid row in her socks and a hospital gown last year, an incident that was captured on videotape.

Patient dumping has become so widespread there's a bill in the California State Senate to criminalize the practice.

But these practices go deeper than a few isolated incidents. They are part of a system of abuse against LA's poor and homeless population.

- John Bolton: neocon warmongering monster:

Former US United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told the BBC today that he was “damned proud” of how the U.S. intentionally blocked efforts to achieve a ceasefire last summer when Israel was bombing Beirut and many other locales in Lebanon.

Random News & Views Roundup

- Money, money, who's got the missing Iraq billions? Well, how about the former Iraqi minister of defence who's now living the cushy life in Britain? (h/t New Fake Name)

- Janet of Peace Gone Wild has drawn my attention to the recent protests in Tacoma, Washington. Portland Indymedia has ongoing coverage and here are links to two videos showing the riot squad treatment the protesters have received from the police there: here and here. Flashbacks of Kent State. You won't see that on CNN.

- Think it's a coincidence that the Pentagon released a transcript of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed supposedly confessing to over two dozen terrorist attacks at a military tribunal hearing (hearing transcript, pdf file) in the midst of the Alberto Gonzales meltdown? Think again. (Ironically, I'm watching the movie Midnight Express again as I write this. Torture: it's not just for Turkish prisons anymore.)

- The Democrats (and many Republicans) actually did something useful in congress on Wednesday:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.

The measure, which drew bipartisan support and passed by a veto-busting 333-93 margin, was among White House-opposed bills the House passed that would widen access to government information and protect government whistleblowers.

The presidential papers bill nullifies a November 2001 order, criticized by historians, in which Bush allowed the White House or a former president to block release of a former president's papers and put the onus on researchers to show a "specific need" for many types of records.

Among beneficiaries of the Bush order was Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, a former vice president and president.

What's daddy Bush hiding?

- It looks like the Bush administration is going to get its wish for tougher sanctions on Iran.

The modest package of new measures agreed to by the ambassadors of the six countries includes an embargo on Iranian arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs, council diplomats said.

The new resolution would also call on all U.N. member states to exercise "vigilance and restraint" on arms imports and on the entry or transit through their territory of Iranians subject to the asset freeze, a council diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the text has not been circulated.

It would also call on governments to make no new commitments "of grants, financial assistance, or concesssional loans to the government of Iran," the diplomat said.

The United States and the Europeans would certainly favor tougher sanctions, but knew they had to settle for less to ensure that Russia and China, which have close commercial ties with Iran, will not use their veto power to block a resolution.

- On the same day that delusional Joe Lieberman said, "What's happening in Iraq today does not look like failure to me", comes the news that attacks in Iraq have hit an all-time high. How does Joe sleep at nite? Quite well, apparently.

- Interested in the power of the Israel lobby in the United States? Read this piece in The American Conservative, Bloggers vs. the Lobby and stop being afraid to talk about it. Related: Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran.

- Why didn't the US give Israel's government up to the minute drafts on the UN resolution to end the Lebanon war last year? A story in Ha'aretz reports:

The U.S. government failed to give Israel all the drafts of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 ending last summer's Lebanon war in real time, so Israel had to obtain some of the documents from other sources, Israeli government sources said.

The sources, however, said senior government officials ultimately did get all the drafts in time, and there were no delays or information gaps that impeded decision-making during the war.

According to some sources, Israel obtained the drafts not supplied by the Americans from intelligence sources.

This is the most troubling part:

In particular, the second-to-last draft, which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received on the morning of August 11, seemed to him much less favorable than the version on which he and Washington had agreed the previous night.

He later said this draft convinced him to launch a major ground operation during the war's final days in an effort to influence the Security Council. During these three days of fighting, 33 soldiers were killed.

So, Olmert didn't like what he saw coming and decided to up the military might? And to what end? More deaths. I'm sure the families of the dead will be comforted to know that they were used as political pawns.

- Horrid:

U.S. allies in Africa may have engaged in secret prisoner renditions

NAIROBI, Kenya - A network of U.S. allies in East Africa secretly have transferred to prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia at least 80 people who were captured in Kenya while fleeing the recent war in Somalia, according to human rights advocates here.

Kenyan authorities made the arrests as part of a U.S.-backed, four-nation military campaign in December and January against Somalia's Islamist militias, which Bush administration officials have linked to al-Qaida.

At least 150 prisoners, who included men and women of 17 nationalities and children as young as 7 months, were held in Kenya for several weeks before most of them were transferred covertly to Somalia and Ethiopia, where they're being held incommunicado, the groups charge.

The transfers, which authorities reportedly carried out in the middle of the night and made public only after a recent court order in Kenya, violated international law, according to the rights groups. They charge that the program is being driven by the United States, which has built a close relationship with Kenya and Ethiopia in the war on terrorism.

 

Random News & Views Roundup

- The Republicans have decided to allow a debate on the Iraq war in congress. How nice of them! Right. Let's face it. No matter what proposals the Dems come up with, Bush will whip out his trusty veto pen. In the meantime, the Repubs will get to tell all 2 of their happy surge stories over and over as they slap each other on the back while noting how divided the Dems are.

- At a British inquest set up to look into the "friendly fire" (being bombed is more like it) death of British soldier L/Cpl Matty Hull, not only was US military procedure under fire, it was also revealed that:

Despite high-level pressure on the US to start co-operating with the inquiry, it emerged today that the Pentagon was still refusing to provide information requested by the coroner and the Ministry of Defence.

Requests for details of the US rules of engagement, the training records of the pilots, and a detailed explanation of the cockpit recording of had been turned down, the MoD's lawyers told the coroner.

Only a heavily edited copy of the American investigation of the incident has been released, the inquest was told.

This incident happened in 2003. What is the Pentagon hiding and why are they hiding it?

- This is just plain wrong - not to mention gutless:

WASHINGTON - Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit
President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the
Iraq war.

Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.

Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on
Israel had argued for the change in strategy.
[...]
Several officials said there was widespread opposition to the proposal at a closed-door meeting last week of conservative and moderate Democrats, who said they feared tying the hands of the administration when dealing with an unpredictable and potentially hostile regime in Tehran.

Bombs away!

- Yes, as a matter of fact I do have a few things to say about Abu Gonzales' press conference. Later.

- Okay. I'm tired. That's it for now.

Update: The New York Times has an editorial about congress' options for dealing with the Iraq war: The Purse Isn’t Congress’s Only Weapon. (Is it "congress' " or "congress's"? Hmmm... Whatever. They need to get off their asses.)
 

Random News & Views Roundup

Busy day here but here are a few tidbits that caught my eye.

- Bush has approved 4,400 more troops for the Iraq war because he and whoever has been advising him (coughcoughCheneycoughKissingercough) totally misunderestimated what might be needed for their Grand Surge Plan™.

U.S. military commanders in Iraq have said in recent days that the number of additional U.S. troops needed to carry out Bush's security plan for Iraq could approach 30,000, taking into account units needed to support the 21,500 extra combat troops. The United States now has some 140,000 troops in the country.

Memories of cakewalk and being greeted as liberators and flowers and candy stroll through my brain.

- So much for those talks held with Iraq's neighbours and the US on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saturday's death toll includes 40 Iraqis Killed, 104 Wounded and American soldiers are being accused of shooting at a family in Sadr city, killing the father and 2 young daughters, and...

In Diyala, American forces on Friday shot and killed three Iraqi Army soldiers in a military pickup truck after they failed to obey an American order to stop, Iraqi military officials said.

I'm sure there's Good News somewhere in Iraq today, but you'll have to look for it yourself. Try the Department of Defence site.

- In Latin America, Hugo Chavez called Bush a "political cadaver" (ouch - that's a bit more harsh than "lame duck") while Bush was trying to convince people there that he "care[s] about the human condition". Where, exactly? I'm not sure.

- Oh yes, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind people that bin Laden is celebrating his 50th birthday in his undisclosed location today. bin who, you ask?

- Dan Froomkin asks, Where's Karl Rove?. Well, at the very least we know he's not at bin Laden's birthday party.

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "While he has kept a low profile in Washington since the midterm election losses took some of the edge off his reputation as a political genius,

Poor Karl.

"He [Rove] said that the biggest Bush legacy will be what he terms the 'Bush doctrine.' . . .

Along with all of the blood and carnage that goes with it.

- Conrad Black, what a clown. And a tip of the hat to Canadian Cynic for finding this amusing story about a defence fund hoax site that the Lord With the Enormous Ego thought was real!

- Good post by Mike over at Rational Reasons about the overuse of the anti-semitism charge and how that phenomenon is destructive when it comes to fighting real anti-semitism.

- Read Michael Scheuer's A catalogue of errors in Afghanistan.

The future for the West in Afghanistan is bleak, and it is made more discouraging by the fact that much of the West's defeat will be self-inflicted because it did not adequately study the lessons of history.

Exactly.

- Check out this interview with Noam Chomsky about "War, Neoliberalism and Empire in the 21st Century. Interesting stuff.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- The Christian Science Monitor has a good article about the difficulties involved in recycling our hi-tech garbage or "e-waste".

The UN expects the amount of e-waste generated worldwide every year to soon reach 40 million tons, enough to fill a line of garbage trucks stretching halfway around the world.

- Counterpunch: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks? No, it's not about conspiracy theories. It's about the presence of Israeli spies in the US around 9/11. Interesting stuff and some new information about pressure by pro-Israel lobby groups on the MSM to keep the story quiet.

- Oh, look: the Pentagon now says it needs more troops for the so-called surge, which is something I wrote about here yesterday. Meanwhile, the Democrats are still quibbling amongst themselves about drafting a bill that would set a timetable for the withdrawal from Iraq. Don't count on them ending the war any time soon. More Shi'ite pilgrims were killed on Wednesday. Which part of that don't those Democrats get?

- If you've been following the scandal surrounding the attorneys who've been fired in the US, you'll be interested in this latest twist in which a senior GOP aide has now been implicated. Meanwhile, that smirking asshole Alberto Gonzales wrote in USA Today that this is all just "an overblown personnel matter". Right. Just like torture is a little painful but not really that bad after all.

- Guiliani is in trouble with the Southern Baptists over his divorces. They forgive John McCain though because he was a nice guy when he got divorced twice.

- The word of the day is "cloud" because that's apparently what's hanging over Cheney now because of the Libby verdicts. Heck. Cheney's been in a dark cloud since the early 70s. I don't know why that's news all of a sudden.

- BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused the United States of hypocrisy on Thursday in its annual response to Washington's criticism of Beijing's human rights record, saying it had no right to blacken the name of other countries.

Well, someone had to say it, didn't they? It's pretty bad when China actually has a leg to stand on in that argument.