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music
Here is a song to download. Singer / songwriter Christine Lavin (she lives in New York City) spent the last 10 days working on this song. She will be performing it live on Air America Sept. 1. It's good. [Disclosure: Zoe and I work on Christine's website.] Get it at...
"Like Father, Like Son"
a song welcoming the 2004 Republican National Convention to New York City
iraq
Things are coming to a head in Najaf. There is a temporary lull but there is no doubt that it is temporary.
Offensive Operations Halted in Najaf
Negotiations Underway During Lull in Fighting
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U.S. forces ceased offensive operations in the embattled city of Najaf Friday morning, according to Marine and Army officers, barely 24 hours after launching a multi-pronged offensive against the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Commanders indicated the new cease-fire orders were designed to allow political negotiations to proceed between Sadr and the interim Iraqi government.
"There’s a hold on all offensive operations," said Maj. Bob Pizzitola of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division’s 5th Regiment, which patrols the vast cemetery that extends north of the shrine of Imam Ali, the sacred site that has doubled as a Mahdi militia headquarters during the conflict.
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Bush gambles as Najaf burns
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One has to wonder why the Bush administration has selected such a risky strategy, fraught with possibly disastrous consequences. The only explanation that makes sense is that the administration is desperate. In Iraq, US control is slipping away one city at a time, a process that actually accelerated after the "transfer of sovereignty" on June 28. A dramatic military offensive may be the only way the administration can imagine - especially since its thinking is so militarily oriented - to reverse this decline.
In the US, the administration's electoral position is not promising: its hope for a dramatic economic turnaround has been dashed; a post-sovereignty month of quiescence in the US media about Iraq did not reduce opposition to the war; and recently there has been a further erosion of confidence in Bush's anti-terrorist policies. No incumbent president (the Harry S Truman miracle of 1948 excepted) has won re-election with a less-than-50% positive job rating. (The president's now stands somewhere around 47%.) A dramatic military victory, embellished with all sorts of positive spin, might reverse what has begun to look like irretrievable erosion in his re-election chances. The Bush administration appears to have decided that it must take a huge risk to generate a military victory that can turn the tide in both Iraq and in the US.
The agony of the current US offensive begins with the death and destruction it is wreaking on an ancient and holy city. Beyond that, the primary damage may lie in the less visible horror that animates this new military strategy. The US is no longer capable either of winning the "battle for the hearts and minds" of the Iraqis or governing most of the country. But by crushing the city of Najaf, the marines might be able quiet the rebellion for long enough to spin the November election back to Bush.
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Tom Engelhardt reproduces the above article and adds his comments...
Tomgram: Schwartz on Americans rolling the dice in Najaf
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What's wrong with this picture? The United States invaded Iraq to "liberate," above all others, that country's oppressed Shiites, so many of whose rebellious relatives were buried in those "killing fields" Saddam Hussein created while crushing their 1991 uprising; killing fields that were an obligatory stopover for Paul Wolfowitz and his ilk on their brief passages through Iraq. ("We thank all of the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country," said George Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln in his "mission accomplished" speech, as on countless other occasions.) So who are we killing now -- and whose dead bodies are we counting up with a certain pride? Iraqi Shiites. ("Captain Carrie Batson, a marine spokeswoman, said: 'We estimate we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fighting.'") We also invaded Iraq to "liberate" suffering Shiite cities, including the Shiite slums of Baghdad, which had been given the short end of the electricity, food, and jobs stick by Saddam. Now, in those cities, still lacking regular electricity or clean water, short on food, and short on jobs, what are we doing? We're strafing, rocketing, and bombing parts of them. Both Najaf and Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in Baghdad, experienced this yesterday.
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Endgame in Najaf?
by Juan Cole
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If I were thinking conspiratorially, this is what I would say: The Mahdi Army continued to be a challenge to the caretaker government of Allawi and could possibly have launched violence at any time. The Bush administration may have feared leaving this element of uncertainty out there, with the risk that it might explode in their faces in October just before the election. So they could have thought that there are advantages to just taking care of the problem in August, on the theory that the American electorate can't remember anything that happened more than one month previously. Likewise, if they finish off the Mahdi Army, it sends a signal to other potential challengers to the Allawi government and they may think it will be strengthened. Likewise, the Mahdi Army's control of so many neighborhoods was a problem for the proposed January elections, and might have allowed a Sadrist party "machine" to dominate the returns from them.
The problem is that in actual fact they are undermining the credibility of the Allawi government as an independent actor. They are probably also actually increasing Muqtada's popularity, and the likelihood there will be new recruits to the Mahdi Army. The radical Shiites are reworking the conflict as a defense of Iraq's independence from brutal American Occupation.
On Thursday, the Board of Muslim Clergy, a Sunni fundamentalist organization with substantial support from Sunni Muslims, issued a fatwa or ruling that no Iraqi Muslim may participate in an attack on other Iraqi Muslims in support of the occupying power. That is, even the hard line Sunnis, who mostly don't like Shiites, are siding with Muqtada against Allawi and Rumsfeld on this one.
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Intelligence Officials: Iran Battling U.S. In Iraq
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Senior intelligence sources in the U.S., as well as officials in the Middle East, claim that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has made a strategic decision to confront American forces in Iraq's Shi'a heartland. Those senior intelligence sources (a total of five separate individuals who either now serve or have served in key intelligence positions) base their belief on evidence showing that Iran has armed Shi'a groups in southern Iraq with sophisticated weaponry, has provided political and military guidance to Shi'a groups, has made and maintained contacts with Sunni resistance leaders in "the Sunni triangle" in central Iraq, and is pursuing a program of escalating confrontations between Shia militias and American troops. Among the weapons shipped to the Shi'a militants are sophisticated anti-tank rockets and anti-aircraft missiles, according to these sources.
"The rhetoric coming out of the Bush administration has convinced Iran that military conflict is inevitable and rather than await an attack at a time and place of America's choosing, the Iranians will try to inflict significant damage to U.S. forces on Iraqi soil by means of the Mahdi Army and other Shi'a groups," an informed intelligence source told This Is Rumor Control. Senior officials of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency would not comment on these reports, but a former senior intelligence officer said that the conclusion was "a no brainer." As he noted: "If you had U.S. troops on your doorstep and George Bush calling you a part of the axis of evil you would take steps to protect yourself. And it would be better to protect yourself on Iraqi soil than to have to do so on Iranian soil. That is what they are doing. Are we surprised? We shouldn't be."
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thanks to The Blogging of the President: 2004
But Juan Cole isn't so sure about that...
Kadhim on the Najaf Crisis
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Abbas Kadhim, an Iraqi Shiite scholar who knows Najaf intimately, has published an op-ed that questions the common wisdom about the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr.
He points out that, despite the claims of some politicians in the Allawi government, Iran is not in fact implicated in the Sadr movement.
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photography
James Whitlow Delano
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economy
Has the Rout Begun?
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On June 11th I outlined the "Bull Case Scenario"
Now let's look at the score: in the piece I stated that if higher interest rates lead to an easing of the pressure on commodities, this would allow equities to rally. The problems were terrorism, lack of fiscal discipline and fed mismanagement.
In short, the bull case scenario is not materializing, and instead the simpler bear case scenario is: speculators push up the price of oil, and policy makers stand around like idiots, while Wall Street Analysts bait the bear. Which is very real. And.is.going.global.
The Fed hasn't mismanaged the transition, there have been no market failures in the bond market either, as there were last year. Score: Gentleman's B for the Fed. C- for the Treasury, which still has a borrowing curve that is a disaster waiting to happen.
However, the other two requirements for a soft landing have not been met. First because Congress has injected another round of junk stimulus - the defense and security budget - and is pursuing a massive corporate tax break bill. Score D-. Not an F because they haven't passed a bill to reinstate the gold standard or make tax breaks "permanent".
Security. The repeated shutdowns in Iraq required a good deal less terrorism than I had envisioned to put oil over $45. There is a vicious cycle going, of investors around the world dumping equities and hedging into commodities. Since commodity markets are not large compared with credit, currency and equity markets, it takes rather little money to put pressure on commodity prices. Score F.
B/C-/D-/F is a typical Bush report card.
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books and national myths
Steve Gilliard has some interesting comments on how the rest of Asia hates the Japanese not so much for what they did to them but because of how Japan's past has been rewritten by the Japanese to wipe out those atrocities and turn themselves into victims.
It's not just a game: China plays Japan in the Asian Cup finals
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The reason that the Chinese still hate the Japanese is not the killings. The Mongols, Russians and West have all killed their share of Chinese. But the Japanese are special.
Japan has never come to terms with its past. Because of the atomic bomb and the sudden end of the war, there has been little real accounting of what the Japanese did to their neighbors. Koreans joke that if the North has nukes, one is going to land in Tokyo, regardless.
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I'm fascinated by how an entire country can change the reality of it's history; how an entire country can delude itself about the dark side of it's history. The US has it's own national myths. Myths that whitewash the past but that don't erase the reality and it's consequences. I just finished reading Toni Morrison's "Beloved." "Beloved" is a masterpiece. The story revolves around the experience of slavery. This country has a dark stain on it's past that colors much of what is happening in this country today. Minimizing or ignoring what slavery was doesn't make it go away. "Beloved" brings it home. This country will continue to be badly dysfunctional until that past is dealt with.
Then there are the national myths surrounding the genocide of the native Americans.
saudi arabia
House of Saud exits cocoon of denial
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The war between the Saudi monarchy and al-Qaeda is fast becoming a struggle between regime survival and regime change. The underlying objective is replacement of the royalist autocrats by puritanical hierocrats. Saudi autocrats are finally convinced that their regime is faced with the possibility of extinction. Consequently, their natural survival instincts have nullified all previous claims that responsibilities for the al-Qaeda-related terrorist acts should really be placed elsewhere.
Reports currently filtering from Washington and Riyadh state that intelligence agents of the monarchy and the American democracy are reportedly joined at the hip - with the creation of one or more "fusion cells" in Saudi Arabia - to save the autocratic regime, and to ensure uninterrupted access to world's largest oil reserves. The unanswerable question is whether this cooperation will save the oil kingdom, or has it already become a futile endeavor to save a doomed cause.
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book art
Early Harlequin Paperback Cover Art
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thanks to Life In The Present
iran
Diplomacy sidelined as US targets Iran
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The US charge sheet against Iran is lengthening almost by the day, presaging destabilising confrontations this autumn and maybe a pre-election October surprise.
The Bush administration is piling on the pressure over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme. It maintains Tehran's decision to resume building uranium centrifuges wrecked a long-running EU-led dialogue and is proof of bad faith.
The US will ask a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on September 13 to declare Iran in breach of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a prelude to seeking punitive UN sanctions.
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Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, said at the weekend there was a new international willingness to confront Tehran, but declined to rule out unilateral action if others did not go along.
That will fuel speculation in Tehran and elsewhere that the Bush administration may resort to force, with or without Israel, ahead of November's election. Options include "surgical strikes" or covert action by special forces.
Such a move would be a high-risk gamble for George Bush. After the WMD fiasco, there would inevitably be questions about the accuracy of US intelligence. In the past Iran has vowed to retaliate. Although it is unclear how it might do so, the mood in Tehran has hardened since the conservatives won fiddled elections last winter.
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thanks to Antiwar.com
scanography
Jenny caught a couple of moths flying around her house. Here is the top of one of them
Dead Bugs
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Israel flouts road map with new settlement
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Israel has announced plans for thousands of homes in a new settlement near Jerusalem, ignoring its undertaking in the road map to freeze settlement activity.
The proposed settlement, on 1,518 hectares (3,750 acres) of West Bank land, would be sited between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and provide a bridge between them.
It has been planned secretly for several months and yesterday bulldozers and diggers were preparing roads for fu ture building. The settlement would ring Palestinian east Jerusalem, making it impossible for east Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.
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A People Behind Walls
The Wall imposes immense and unnecessary suffering on the Palestinian people.
World Court (ICJ) The Hague.
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The road carves out its path like a long silver snake, slithering through virgin mountainsides, turning olive groves into concrete slabs It’s guarded by armed border police squatting on rocky outposts, positioned every 25 meters along the route. Bulldozers roar, churning up savage clouds of red dust, while earthmovers delve into volcanic like ditches that herald the beginning of a 25ft high razor fence. A young donkey with a foal in tow hesitates before the ditch unable to proceed further and obviously confused its familiar journey no longer possible. There is no path for man or beast. Large tracts of fertile land stand marooned, and forcibly abandoned, their owners denied access. Patches of old tattered green canvas once a carpet for the olives lie scattered here and there, together with remnants of perhaps what was once the scene of a picnic celebration. Olives trees harvested for centuries, their upturned roots now bared to the sky, plants and herbs long used in traditional Palestinian cuisine wither in the dry grass. Aside from the presence of Israeli police and Palestinian labourers there is not a villager in sight.
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Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Watching It Unfold
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Where Israel is concerned, U.S. foreign policy never ceases to amaze. When Palestinian in-fighting took place in Gaza last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell had the following to say about the United States' position: "Just have to watch it unfold." Interestingly enough, my grandmother's position was the same and it is unclear who announced it first.
The majority of Americans may just brush over such ridiculous comments from the U.S. Secretary of State, but I, for one, refuse to allow it to pass without comment. As a tax-paying American citizen, my tax dollars deserve to be better employed. Hiring senior policy advisors who can't tell the difference between cause and effect does not serve the American people's interests.
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thanks to Aron's Israel Peace Weblog
CSM column on Arafat, US policy
by Helena Cobban
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I have a column in the CSM today about Arafat. It also has a recommendation for what the US could reasonably do, right now and also after the November election, to help improve the situation. The segué there is this crucial argument:
[The] trends in Palestinian politics are extremely important to the US, because Washington's recent policies on the Palestinian issue are cited by Muslims worldwide as one of the main reasons for their strong opposition to Washington.
It may be true that Mr. Sharon is now willing to pull back from the tiny, overpopulated Gaza Strip. But what Muslims around the world see is that he continues to implant thousands of new Israeli settlers each month into the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - a holy city for Muslims, as well as Jews and Christians. When Washington continues to give Israel generous and unconditional support despite Sharon's pursuit of the West Bank settlement project, that seriously undercuts US ability to win Muslim support in the campaign against global terrorism.
Now, I wish I'd put that point up to the very top of the piece. Bush's flagrantly unfair, inhumane, and destructive policy on the Palestinian issue is really the big, unmentioned elephant in the room in all the current discussions in the US discourse over "what can we do to undercut support for Al-Qaeda".
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the dude abides
I love this movie. I didn't realize others felt the same way. Zoe gave it to me as an early birthday present on a day I wasn't feeling to well. Thank's Zoe! I made me feel a lot better.
You're Entering a World of Lebowski
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A CULT gives its members license to feel superior to the rest of the universe, and so does a cult movie: it confers hipness on those who grok what the mainstream audience can't. Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 hyperintellectual stoner noir bowling comedy "The Big Lebowski," starring Jeff Bridges as Jeff (The Dude) Lebowski, has the requisite exclusivity of a cult classic: it bombed at the box office; it was met with shrugs by many critics who had arguably overpraised the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning "Fargo" (1996); and it has amassed an obsessive following on cable and video and by word of mouth. Nowadays, quoting its intricate, absurdist, often riotously profane dialogue earns you coolness points in widely disparate circles. Some would even say that the cult of "The Big Lebowski" is going mainstream.
It has a rolling national convention, for starters: the Lebowski Fest, which in June attracted 4,000 followers in Louisville, Ky., and on Friday arrives in New York City. For two days, Lebowski fans (referred to as Achievers) will dress up as their favorite character (or prop, like a severed toe), dig some far-out rock bands at the Knitting Factory, bowl in far-out Queens, imbibe White Russians (and maybe less licit substances) and spend a lot of time shouting lines at one another like:
"This aggression will not stand, man."
"You're entering a world of pain."
"You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me, there are ways, Dude. You don't want to know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon, with nail polish."
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republican national convention
Steve Gilliard continues his series on protesting during the Republican convention. There seem to be all sorts of people that have axes to grind...
Protest New York
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The fact is that the RNC is building up into a nasty brew of workers, protesters and anarchists. It could work agaist the Dems, but it could do even more damage against Bush.
Why?
If the cops try Miami-style tactics, all hell will break loose. Because then you get the black politicans who have every interest in making Bush and Bloomberg look bad. And if they lay a whomping on middle class people, it will not go down well. Of course, that depends on how many cops show up. Bloomberg is no Giuliani, but he is inflexible in many different ways.
[...]
What Bush would like is a bunch of hippies stopping traffic. So would the media. But when it's cops and firefighters and teachers, then you have a very different issue. And if cops beat protesters, Bloomberg is in more trouble than he can imagine. If there is a violent riot in the park, it will be on Bloomberg, who will be tagged for protecting grass over people.
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Should we protest? Hell, yes!
political bicycles
Bikes Against Bush
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Bikes Against Bush is a one-of-a-kind, interactive protest/performance occurring simultaneously online and on the streets of NYC during the upcoming Republican National Convention. Using a Wireless Internet-enabled bicycle outfitted with a custom-designed printing device, the Bikes Against Bush bicycle can print spray-chalk text messages sent from web users directly onto the streets of Manhattan.
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thanks to 117 Blog
what has america become?
This American Strife
Be it on "Survivor" or in the White House, sore winners take it all in our polarized culture. Author John Powers talks about the "social Darwinism" that has become the order of the day.
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One of the characteristics of Bush World as you describe it is the return of "social Darwinism," which essentially justifies this winners/losers paradigm.
The crude version of social Darwinism is the idea that in economic life, as in biological life, the strongest prevail. The poor deserved to be poor and it is ordained by the very structure of the cosmos. This is an idea that is obviously very popular with people who are doing well.
The idea, which dates back to the 19th century, survived until the Great Depression, when it was discredited. Many of the New Deal programs were antithetical to this notion. But the paradoxical thing is that the very programs that created the safety net and prosperity for Americans made people question their value. In the Reagan years, we began to think that we're all entitled to and can be prosperous; social programs have nothing to do with it. The idea began to emerge – once again – that the rich should get more because they are worthy. Moreover, if the poor are poor, it's their own damn fault.
The current version of this doctrine is even more ruthless because it is now wrapped in populism. In Tom Frank's new book, "What's the Matter with Kansas," he does a very good job of showing how economic losers tend to transform their frustration into action not on economic but on cultural issues. The gist of that book is about the Right's success in casting itself as the populist party that is attacking cultural elites – when in fact there is an economic elite that is really running the country.
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thanks to New World Disorder
A Different America
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THE FIRST CLUE I had that today's America is different from the America I grew up in came shortly after my son and I flew in from England to attend a funeral.
I was trying to drive my normal-sized rental car carefully because I hadn't taken out collision insurance, and I was surrounded by enormous vehicles larger than run-of-the-mill SUVs. My little car was overwhelmed by these monsters. I had trouble pulling out of places as they blocked my vision the way skyscrapers steal sunshine from city dwellers.
Pulling into a parking space at the funeral home, I was amazed to find myself next to a Hummer. Who needs to drive a Hummer in a town? As I passed two other Hummers and hundreds of SUVs later (does anyone drive regular cars in America anymore?), I realized that all the big military-type vehicles on the road make it look as if America is at war. But at war with whom?
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thanks to Conscientious
I Love You, Madame Librarian
By Kurt Vonnegut
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In case you haven’t noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.
In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.
With good reason.
In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill ’em and torture ’em and imprison ’em all we want.
Piece of cake.
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thanks to also not found in nature
astronomy
Here is all sorts of information on what is happening in your night sky. Registration requires a location so that the time and star charts are accurate for your location.
astronomydaily.com
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scanography
I've added some more scans to my Gallery. I've created a new Flora section. Check them out.
I have a couple of very nice moths to do next. Jenny put herself in harm's way in order to capture them for me.
iraq
I checked CNN and the lead item is Sheriff: 4 charged in killings over Xbox game system. It wouldn't appear that Iraq is spiralling out of control. Maybe they, and their viewers, ought to pay attention.
Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites
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Marine commanders battling Moktada al-Sadr's rebel militiamen in this Shiite holy city said Saturday that the fighting had cleared the rebels from the ancient cemetery in the heart of the old city, but that more fighting lay ahead in the streets and alleyways nearby as an American-led offensive moved to the end of its third day.
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As usual, Juan Cole has the most insight on what is going on. Here are two...
US Attack "Uncivilized": Jafari
Fresh Violence in Sadr City
15 US Soldiers Wounded, 3 Dead in recent Fighting
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Before I go over the details, here is my reading of what is going on in Najaf. The truce between the Mahdi Army and US/ Iraqi forces broke down because they had different ideas of what the truce entailed. US-appointed governor Adnan al-Zurufi had demanded that the Mahdi Army disarm and/or leave Najaf. Muqtada al-Sadr on the other hand interpreted the truce to entail limiting his militia's activities to certain areas of the city and to have them avoid clashes with police and US troops.
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Continued Shiite Clashes with US
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AFP reports that hundreds of Najaf families streamed out of the city on Saturday, terrified of the heavy warfare being fought all around them. The US has aerially bombed Najaf cemetery and US tanks have targeted hotels in the city in an effort to get at the Mahdi army militiamen, of whom the US claims to have killed 300. This number has been challenged by the Sadrists, and local hospitals put the dead at closer to 76.
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In the midst of this Sistani has fled Iraq and is in England. Not good. Again, Juan Cole...
Sistani's Trip to the UK
Fayyad Likely Successor
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Ma`d Fayyad of Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reveals some of the background to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's trip to the UK. He says that it has been in the works for some time, and that British authorities knew about the plan for the ayatollah to come to London as early as two weeks ago. He says that there was fear that Muqtada al-Sadr would have Sistani taken hostage, or that he might seek refuge in the grand ayatollah's house. (If those are the reasons for the trip, and if the British knew about it two weeks ago, that means that plans to come after Muqtada were made at least two weeks ago).
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And Riverbend (an Iraqi woman in Baghdad) brings her perspective...
Clashes and Churches...
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300+ dead in a matter of days in Najaf and Al Sadir City. Of course, they are all being called ‘insurgents’. The woman on tv wrapped in the abaya, lying sprawled in the middle of the street must have been one of them too. Several explosions rocked Baghdad today- some government employees were told not to go to work tomorrow.
So is this a part of the reconstruction effort promised to the Shi’a in the south of the country? Najaf is considered the holiest city in Iraq. It is visited by Shi’a from all over the world, and yet, during the last two days, it has seen a rain of bombs and shells from none other than the ‘saviors’ of the oppressed Shi’a- the Americans. So is this the ‘Sunni Triangle’ too? It’s déjà vu- corpses in the streets, people mourning their dead and dying and buildings up in flames. The images flash by on the television screen and it’s Falluja all over again. Twenty years from now who will be blamed for the mass graves being dug today?
We’re waiting again for some sort of condemnation. I, personally, never had faith in the American selected proxy government currently pretending to be in power- but for some reason, I keep thinking that any day now- any moment- one of the Puppets, Allawi for example, will make an appearance on television and condemn all the killing. One of them will get in front of a camera and announce his resignation or at the very least, his utter disgust, at the bombing, the burning and the killing of hundreds of Iraqis and call for an end to it… it’s a foolish hope, I know.
So where is the interim constitution when you need it? The sanctity of private residences is still being violated... people are still being unlawfully arrested... cities are being bombed. Then again, there really is nothing in the constitution that says the American millitary *can't* actually bomb and burn.
Sistani has conveniently been flown to London. His ‘illness’ couldn’t come at a better moment if Powell et al. had personally selected it. While everyone has been waiting for him to denounce the bombing and killing of fellow-Shi’a in Najaf and elsewhere, he has come down with some bug or other and had to be shipped off to London for check-ups. That way, he can remain silent about the situation. Shi’a everywhere are disappointed at this silence. They are waiting for some sort of a fatwa or denouncement- it will not come while Sistani is being coddled by English nurses.
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Meanwhile, back in Iraq.....
by Steve Gilliard
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While the US is distracted with the Presidential Campaign all hell is breaking loose in Iraq. Marines are now fighting street to street in Najaf, while Juan Cole says that if they kill Sadr, the next step could be Iran, 1978. Which is not good. Not good at all.
What Cole means is that there could a mass uprising across Southern Iraq, and they could get help from their Iranian coreligionists. Help meaning guns and Basiji Revolutionary Guards. Which would make the Mahdi Army professional in ways the US would not want to deal with.
[...]
This is spinning wildly out of control. Sadr has the men in the street and the popular support. Sistani has the respect. But if Sistani is gone, his less moderate acolytes may well through their lot in with the Mahdi Army. The US can't stop this, they can't even walk around Sadr City. When they do, they get mobbed. The ultimate nightmare is the death of both Sadr and Sistani, which means either a quick alliance or nasty civil war. While the US has looked inwards, the situation in Iraq has gone from bad to night terrors. The handover has made things worse, not better. The bleeting of the right that accusing Allawi of extrajudicial murders has not helped matters. The Bushies wanted a simple solution to a complicated problem and they don't have it and aren't close to having it.
What happens next?
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And the tortures and beatings continue. Tell me again how removing Saddam has made life so much for the Iraqis.
Ordered to Just Walk Away
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From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blind folded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days.
In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices - metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs.
The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.
But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 - Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S. invasion.
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The Theft of Iraq® continues unabated...
Empire Notes
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The Post has a very long, comphrehensive, and important article in the evolving story of U.S. robbery of Iraqi money, with a good headline into the bargain -- $1.9 Billion of Iraq's Money Goes to U.S. Contractors.
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What About Iraq?
by Paul Krugman
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A funny thing happened after the United States transferred sovereignty over Iraq. On the ground, things didn't change, except for the worse.
But as Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect puts it, the cosmetic change in regime had the effect of "Afghanizing" the media coverage of Iraq.
He's referring to the way news coverage of Afghanistan dropped off sharply after the initial military defeat of the Taliban. A nation we had gone to war to liberate and had promised to secure and rebuild - a promise largely broken - once again became a small, faraway country of which we knew nothing.
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astronomy
Cassini just begins to suprise.
Spacecraft Finds Belt Around Saturn Unlike Any Ever Seen Before
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In its first month orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has detected a new radiation belt in an unexpected place, its invisible swarm of trapped high-energy particles circling the planet inside the inner edge of Saturn's signature disk of luminous rings.
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thanks to DANGEROUSMETA!
Cassini-Huygens
Ringscape In Color
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election 2004
Here is an interesting list to help you in the runup to Bush's defeat in November.
6 Presidential Polling Resources Worth Watching
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diagram art
Welcome to threetwoone.org!
Bush dynasty - as
described in
Kevin Phillips' book
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thanks to J-Walk Blog
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