🏷️ political

Crucial news stories are trickling out from Iraq. You may have missed these, because it's buried under the mass of a new OJ trial of some sort. Here is some of the real news.



Bush's new Iraq Ally gets killed.
When George bush went to Iraq two weeks ago. He went to Anbar Provence, which is so safe even the president can go there. That's the message anyway, Success in Anbar. And who do we have to thank? The troop surge of course, and a man named Sheikh Abu Risha who brought the warring factions together to fight Al Qaeda. Bush is seen shaking Abu Risha's hand in the above picture. Now the people in Anbar can go about being a stable democracy, and "an ally on the war on terror" as bush says.

Abu Risha shook Bush's hand, and a week later was killed... by Al Qaeda of course, just hours before Bush gave a speech on the wonderful things happening in Iraq. Tragic end to a wonderful man? Not quite. One journalist took his Camera to Anbar for the BBC and chronicled the progress and the uneasiness there. They found Abu Risha, the man of mystery, and got an interview out of him, one of the things he said was "I have worked with All of the Iraqi Tribes and they are All under my leadership." a blanket statement that makes the bullshit alarms go off in my head. All of the tribes? really? They are "All" under your leadership. Well how come nobody ever heard of you before now, he was nicknamed the "ghost of Anbar" by the Iraqis, because nobody had heard his name until recently, and few have met him. But he showed up just in time for Bush to stage a photo op, and try to sell the Iraq Policy again. And Abu Risha was killed in true mob fashion, he got greedy, he conned the Americans into giving him some money, then he fled to jordan, but he did not escape the Iraqi mob, who sent a message to other con men who go meddling in their business and taking money for themselves.

Video, from Iraq
Part one
Part 2

In Depth Analysis, from Greg Palast


Abu Risha's obituary from the BBC




The other Big story "Will Iraq Kick Out Blackwater?"
If you've never heard of "Blackwater" you might be interested to know that the US military isn't the only American force fighting in Iraq, Blackwater is a private contractor, hired guns, mercenaries if you will. They do things like protect State Department officials when they travel about the country. They're heavily armed and get paid about 50 times more then the US military personnel (not 50% more, military pay x50). Anyway they've got at least 1,000 soldiers, er, people fighting in Iraq. And they're in a sort of legal limbo, unaccountable to the American Government, our military courts, or any other.

In a recent twist of events, Blackwater contractors were involved in a firefight on Sunday, which left a number of Iraqis dead or injured. The event was offensive enough that the Iraqi Interior Ministry has suspended Blackwater's license to operate in the country. They declared that all Blackwater personnel must leave the country, except those being questioned in the shooting, they will be tried in Iraqi courts. I didn't know Iraq had functioning courts. But anyway, that was the story, until the state department called Iraq's Prime Minister Alawi to demand a stop to this legal nonsense. Well actually Condi Rice called Alawi and said the the US was already investigating this matter, no need to worry, don't get too hasty. Alawi and his cabinet are going to have a meeting about it tomorrow. I'm very curious what will come out of it.

Kicking contractors out of Iraq... depending on how this plays out it could be a watershed moment. There are thousands of contractors operating in Iraq, a shadow military of some sort. There are 48,000 Military contractors in Iraq (corrected). What if they started kicking them out, establishing their own sovereignty, and thereby reducing the troop level without Bush's consent by reducing the number of contractors aiding the troops. What happens then? I'm rooting for the Iraqis on this one.

News accounts of the Blackwater Story:


More About Blackwater



P.S.
Alan Greenspan says oil was the purpose of Iraq War. So if you don't believe me, believe him. He's a republican stalwart who was there from the beginning. It's kind of like John McCain of Paul Wolfowitz confessing about the Iraq War. Greenspan briefed Bush on the idea as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Ok, there's a lot of news to comment about. I gotta start somewhere..

I want to talk about the Warrantless Wiretapping program. but first I want to mention the democratic primary and the debate last night on MSNBC.

I was fired up watching the debate. Speaking in front of a union audience in a football stadium. Many of the candidates were straight forward and passionate. Healthcare, campaign contributions, NAFTA, Iraq. The democrats talk about serious issues, and their solutions go the the root causes of the problem. Not all the candidates would make a great president, but some are outstanding, and I'm glad to have them all in public office working to protect me, and all the citizens of this country. Democrats have a great field of candidates to choose from.

I can't find a direct link to the full video on MSNBC, but if you go to this link you can see some of the highlights, and once the video player opens look for a video called "democrats face off in soldier field" that's the full video.


After watching the candidates debate here and on the Youtube debate, and hearing some interviews, I've narrowed it down to three.

Dennis Kucinich - Barak Obamma - and Chris Dodd

Why not the others? Bill Richardson can't handle foreign policy, he's a governor, and hasn't given foreign policy enough thought. John Edwards, I'm not convinced he will work hard enough to change things, though his ideas are good, he's just not convincing, I'm not sure people can rally behind him. Joe Biden is a bit too headstrong and I'm afraid his impulses might lead to some bad decisions. Hilary Clinton, though I'd love to have a woman president, she is too close to the power establishment, and has made a lot of terrible votes, she's soft on universal single-payer healthcare, workers rights, She is trying not to rock the boat, but guess what, the boat is Way the hell off course, and it needs to be rocked. However, after saying all that, she's probably my 4th choice.

Denis Kucinich is my favorite, I'm not convinced he would be the absolute best president yet, but he has the best track record, the best ideas, the most honest passion, and the greatest desire to turn this country around. He was the only one on stage repeatedly answering the tough questions by saying "Yes I support Universal, Single Payer, non-Profit Healthcare for all Americans. In Fact, I introduced legislation a few months ago..." Just paraphrasing his response there, but over and over, he answered questions by talking about a bill he wrote and exactly what it would do. How many jobs would be created, how many people this would help, etc. He's done the work, and crafted legislation on every important issue. Kucinich rocks, our rights and our safety would be best taken care of by him. he is careful deliberative, and driven to do public service for the sake of the public. I'd say he's the most selfless candidate. I'm not sure how other countries and the American people would accept him, but he would make the best decisions on the issues, and he would push hard for the serious change that this country desperately needs.

Kucinich does not parse his words, he's not digging for happy terminology and 8 second sound bites, he knows he is right and speaks straight from his heart. Obamma is a close second here he would make great decisions and be an excellent leader, he's just a little too political. He chooses his words, and tries to tailor his ideas so that people can accept them at face value. The difference is that Kucinnich is always looking out for our best interests, and he doesn't care if you don't agree at first, because it's the right decision. and in a Democracy when you have a free flow of ideas the right decision comes out on top. Open up a thoughtful discussion of any issue and you will see why his ideas make the most sense. He's not affraid to be drastic, this country needs drastic change. That would be the difference between Obamma and Kucinich.

Chris Dodd is third, he stands up for issues that are important to working families. I can't find anything to criticise, though I think the other two would take more risks to do what's right for the country.

I wish out voting system made more sense, so we could continue this robust discussion past the primary season. I'm worried about what will happen when our "2" parties get back to bickering instead of thoughtful debate.

Here's a video from the debate.


I guess that's my synopsis. There's more to talk about but I ran out of time. Wiretapping, Voting, and funding infrastructure, will have to wait for another day.



i should mention one thing though. about the Warantless Wiretapping stuff that congress passed last Friday. It's unconstitutional, 4th amendment. It's illegal search and seizure without a warrant. It's called checks and balances. You know the reason our powerful country has survived over 200 years without tyranny. The executive branch needs to tell someone when it's going to go through your stuff, or else they will abuse that power, no matter who the president is.

Brian Higgins voted for it. He was the only Democrat in NY to vote for this unconstitutional power grab by the president. Why did all the Republicans in the US vote for it I don't know. Conservatives usually want to keep their rights. Whatever. Brian Higgins is a tool. I'm writing a letter, what on earth is he thinking, this is worse than the Bankruptcy bill he voted for. He probably thinks Guantanamo is alright too. Anyway the president can now monitor your computer and phone communication without a warrant. The constitution is in trouble.

Here's the vote


Here's a good summary of why it's so terrible.



Thanks, take care all, talk to you soon.