News – The US = Sucker?

Should we be getting conned like this? I think not.

Iraq

Iraq WMD hunters are investigating the obvious possibility that Saddam was bluffing about his weapons capability before the war. All the chemical weapons hysteria that resulted would just make the US look like more of an ass if that’s true, because the leadership would have fallen for one of the oldest bluffs ever.

A small protest of jobless Iraqis in Baghdad turned violent with the protestors throwing stones and police forces responding with bullets. This punctuates the need, for simple stability, to find or make work for Iraqis who are without jobs. Iraqi businesses need to be given the reigns of work, rather than opening up the country to be sold off but by bit to foreign countries.

Israel/Palestine

The Israeli ‘security fence’ was slated to loop into Palestinian territory again and enclose the settlement of Ariel, this portion hotly protested by many groups. Plans for a separate part of the fence, around Ariel, will go ahead, but it will not be linked to the rest of the fence. Yet. So, essentially, they’re kicking actual defiance down the road without losing time on their project.

Sheikh Bassam Sa’adi, a senior Islamic Jihad leader and three others were captured in a raid of a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jenin, witnesses say. A Guardian piece says 14 were captured. Promises of retaliation are already out there.

Israeli MPs are calling for the firing of 28 pilots who have refused to fly missions over populated areas and for them to be brought under charges of mutiny. In an unsettling parroting of the Bush administration, defence minister Shaul Mofaz told the knesset that the pilots were aiding “terrorists” when they signed a letter last week saying they would not carry out “illegal and immoral orders to attack, of the type Israel carries out in the [occupied] territories”.

Screw you Mofaz.

Afghanistan

The work to disarm some 100k fighters from the country’s regional militias will likely take another two years. Considering the poor security situation in Afghanistan, I think it’ll take longer, trying to convince them to give up their guns, unless there is some security they can trust more than it.

UK

Two women lost their court battle, fighting to be allowed to have children by frozen embryos created during a former relationship. The two men who were once with these ladies objected to them being used after the end of the relationship and it is a law to destroy frozen embryos after a relationship is dissolved unless both parties agree to their use.

US

The investigation into the leak has begun. We’ll see if they ferret out the culprit or find nothing.. again.

Mrs. Bush has been on a general PR offensive over in Europe. She’s urging Russian kids to turn off the TV and go read a book.

More shenanigans for the do-not-call list. Now, the FTC as blocked by the courts before, on first amendment grounds. But they’ve planned to pass the buck to the FCC to get things rolling again. However a new court ruling finds that the FTC can be held in contempt if they pass the list off to the FCC. Despite all of this, some telemarketing groups are going to abide by the list anyway. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

A Bush Administration panel says we should spend more money on Middle East PR. I agree, take some of the bomb and gun fund and funnel that into PR. It’ll do a lot more good that way.

The Bush Administration continues to deny requests to declassify more of the report on 9/11 intelligence failures, citing that it will mess up current investigations. I wonder how long they’ll be able to milk that excuse.

The Gaffes of Dick Gepardt(I’m leaning to spell his name right): Dick’s expressed desire to ‘overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does’. The law says the president has to abide by the Supreme Court, but Dick’s spokesperson says it was just ‘expressing his commitment to diversity and his willingness to use the tools of his office to promote affirmative action programs to the fullest extent possible.’ The second is a disagreement between he and his brother over his father’s work as a milk truck driver.

Ever wonder how secret CIA secret agents are? Depends on your position. It is possible the uncovered CIA agent was a Nonofficial cover(NOC) agent. That’s the highest level of secrecy and if that is true, her being compromised is BAD for national intelligence.

Kerry whacks at Bush’s Iraq policy and promotes his own. Though the personal aspects of his mannerisms don’t sit well.

Yes we want a good investigation on the CIA agent leak, but should we bring back the Independent Counsel Statue to do it?

General

A painful review of Madonna’s new children’s book, The English Roses. I find it terribly amusing, but not in a positive way.

Back with Lara Tabac is a medical anthropologist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for her second diary entry. Her goal with her current study is to discover at what points the ‘if people know how to protect themselves from needle/sex transmitted diseases they will’ paradigm breaks down. We know it works for most people, but never for all. Understanding and qualifying when and why it doesn’t work can help to fill those gaps.

International Papers muses Italy’s power outage and what factors might have led up to it.

Today’s Papers notes another Guantanimo arrest, note of an Afghan province where reconstruction is going reasonably well and, of course, leak info by the handful.

Amusements

Like, way closed, man.