Monday, February 28, 2005
What’s Happening, Lebanon: Impressive. The Bushies will want to claim it’s because of the invasion. One can only cite locals who say this is an indigenous movement, long in the making. But the Bush p.r. machine… Yet, strangely, thus far the Administration hasn’t been giddy. Maybe that’s because they don’t really care about spreading democracy. Again, what matters most is that this was a rare example of the public 'rising up' in the Arab world.
The Syrian-backed government of Lebanon stepped down Monday, collapsing under a groundswell of street protests, candlelight vigils and international pressure to end Damascus' domination of its neighbor.
While thousands of demonstrators thronged in the streets, Prime Minister Omar Karami, an ally of Syria, stood before parliament and announced that he would quit his job and dismantle his Cabinet. The decision was apparently spontaneous. Pro-Syrian lawmakers appeared stunned and members of the opposition rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
The resignation was a triumph for a swelling Lebanese opposition, which has been calling for Syria to withdraw its soldiers and disentangle its intelligence services from Lebanon's institutions. Tensions had been mounting since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many blamed on Syria.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lebanon1mar01,0,7734839,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
What’s Happening, Iraq: Even before the latest, massive bombing, few thought we were viewing that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
The insurgency in Iraq is not likely to be put down in a year or even two since history shows such uprisings can last a decade or more, the United States' top military commander said on Friday. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said that in the past century, insurgencies around the world have lasted anywhere from seven to 12 years, making a quick fix to the problem in Iraq unlikely http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&u=/nm/20050226/wl_nm/iraq_myers_dc&printer=1
But the voting- be it 70% or 58%, regardless if they voted for a theocratic leadership, didn’t that prove the invasion was justified? (No)
Iraqi Local Councils a Bust Interesting piece on the quiet disappearance of most neighborhood "governing councils" in Iraq, the establishment of which had been touted as a Bush administration achievement in Iraq. The members no longer meet and many are in hiding, for fear of assassination.
Two councils the Monitor has tracked since late 2004 - in middle-class Hay Somer and the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sheikh Maruf - no longer exist, and many of their former members are in hiding. The fate of the councils provides grim evidence of how difficult it is for democracy to take root in Iraq.
Hundreds of neighborhood councils, now a dead letter as the elite politicians who won seats in Iraq's national election squabble over the spoils, were set up across Iraq in 2003 by the US military and the Research Triangle Institute, based near Raleigh, N.C., was given a contract with up to $460 million to build local governance. The idea was to prime the pump of citizen participation and create a new culture that would make democracy work for citizens in a tangible way. But nearly two years later, the money and effort has yielded few visible gains.http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0225/p01s03-woiq.htm
Bulletin: The Iraq Invasion was settled on a year before it happened! Tony Blair in fresh trouble over this; but, anyone who reads and thinks knew this during the run-up to the invasion.
Fresh evidence has come to light suggesting that Tony Blair committed himself to war in Iraq nearly a year before the American and British assault in March 2003.
The news will heighten the pressure on the Prime Minister to reveal how Britain was drawn into the conflict, in a week when a leading QC has called into question the legal advice on which the Government went to war. Such anxiety is felt in official circles that Special Branch detectives had questioned MPs over leaks, it emerged this weekend. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=615232
Last September, highly embarrassing leaked documents showed that as early as March 2002, the Prime Minister's foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, was assuring Condoleezza Rice of Mr Blair's unbudgeable support for "regime change". Days later, Sir Christopher Meyer, then British ambassador to the US, sent a dispatch to Downing Street detailing how he repeated the commitment to Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary. The ambassador added that Mr Blair would need a "cover" for any military action. "I then went through the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN Security Council resolutions." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=615231
What’s Happening, Iran Iran forges ahead…with what?
Russia and Iran signed a deal Sunday that would deliver nuclear fuel to the Middle East country for the startup of its first reactor — a project the United States had for years pushed Moscow to drop, claiming Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
Apparently, the Administration was hoping to use evidence of this and the allegations that Iran bought nulear designs and materials via the A.Q. Khan network to set up either a chastising of Iran at the UN or a proving that European failure to ‘tame’ the Islamic Republic… and thus control the agenda. But, once again, the intelligence is mixed, summarized by the conclusion that "there is no evidence the materials were assembled in a manner consistent with bomb-building." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56391-2005Feb26.html
Speaking of Khan, there is belated recognition of the fact that this dispensing of nuclear technology has been going on for a very long time.
Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-khan27feb27,0,2403259.story?coll=la-home-headlines
What’s Happening, Egypt: Democratizing?
A developing media consensus (?) that Mubarak’s proposed holding of multiparty presidential elections next year is the result of the momentum generated by the Iraq and Palestinian elections. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt27feb27,0,5950305.story?coll=la-home-headlines But, the NY Times notes, such an eventuality may be stalled by the Egyptian parliament which has the constitutional responsibility to author an amendment to get the ball rolling. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/international/middleeast/27egypt.html?hp&ex=1109566800&en=b4efbc57fd02e90b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bad Week for Bushies on Social Security
Mr. [Repub. Sen. Charles] Grassley, whose position as Senate finance chairman makes him the linchpin of any Social Security deal, said he still intended to negotiate a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But he warned that lawmakers would not act unless there was pressure from voters, and he said voters would not put pressure on Congress unless the president persuaded them that private accounts are necessary.
"I think 90 percent of the lifting is with the president," he said. Mr. Grassley said, when asked if he was reaching out to Democrats, "That process is starting, but it's starting very slow because too many Republicans and Democrats - how would you say it? - don't have the confidence that this issue is ever going to come up." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/politics/27cong.html?position=&pagewanted=print&position=
But, then, there’s Joe Lieberman. ‘Rumors’ are that he’ll cut a deal with the White House (via Lindsey Graham (R-SC), providing the Administration with the claim of ‘bi-partisan support’.
Republican Heretics: Raising taxes, protecting Medicaid, etc. David Sirota, late of the Center for American Progress:
In the South, for instance, two GOP congressmen-turned-governors have abandoned their past willingness to gut Medicaid funding and are now raising hell about budget shortfalls. Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher told Fox News last month that he's "very concerned about any cuts" to the low-income health care program, apparently forgetting how his party tried to cut Medicaid repeatedly when he was a House member. Similarly, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a hard-core economic conservative in Congress, actually proposed raising cigarette taxes to increase Medicaid funding.
In two other "red" states, this same sort of reversal occurred on tax policy. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley last year ignored his votes in Congress for deficit-expanding tax cuts and instead pushed a referendum to raise taxes on his state's top income earners to deal with budget shortfalls.
In Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels is calling for an income tax increase on his state's top income earners. This is the same Mitch Daniels who, as President Bush's budget director from 2001 to 2003, attacked congressional Democrats who proposed doing the very same thing. http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MDAmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NTg5MjAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNA==
Governor Arnold Tries the Propaganda Route He must be inspired by the White House efforts.
Using taxpayer money, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has sent television stations statewide a mock news story extolling a proposal that would benefit political boosters in the business community by ending mandatory lunch breaks for many hourly workers.
The tape looks like a news report and is narrated by a former television reporter who now works for the state. But unlike an actual news report, it does not provide views critical of the proposed changes. Democrats have denounced it as propaganda. Snippets aired on as many as 18 stations earlier this month, the administration said.
The tape opens with text suggesting introductory comments to be read by a news anchor: "If approved, the changes would clear up uncertainty in the business community and create a better working environment throughout the state."
The video shows construction workers, waitresses, nurses, farmworkers and a forklift operator at their jobs, and includes interviews with a farmer and a restaurant manager. The narrator says the proposal would permit workers to "eat when they are hungry, and not when the government tells them."
The tape makes no mention that organized labor opposes the changes, or that workers would have a harder time suing employers over missed meal breaks. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-video28feb28,1,5929480,print.story
Christian Right Flex the Muscle:
A Broadway run of the musical Jerry Springer - The Opera has been scrapped in the fallout from a Christian fundamentalist group's campaign against the award-winning show.
It is the latest twist in an extraordinary few days, which has seen Christian Voice - believed to be little more than a "one-man band" led by Stephen Green - pressure a cancer charity into rejecting proceeds from a gala performance of the show in London. A question mark now hangs over a UK tour of Jerry Springer due to take place in the autumn, with one theatre having withdrawn and at least one other considering its position.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=615201
-R
The Syrian-backed government of Lebanon stepped down Monday, collapsing under a groundswell of street protests, candlelight vigils and international pressure to end Damascus' domination of its neighbor.
While thousands of demonstrators thronged in the streets, Prime Minister Omar Karami, an ally of Syria, stood before parliament and announced that he would quit his job and dismantle his Cabinet. The decision was apparently spontaneous. Pro-Syrian lawmakers appeared stunned and members of the opposition rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
The resignation was a triumph for a swelling Lebanese opposition, which has been calling for Syria to withdraw its soldiers and disentangle its intelligence services from Lebanon's institutions. Tensions had been mounting since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many blamed on Syria.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-lebanon1mar01,0,7734839,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
What’s Happening, Iraq: Even before the latest, massive bombing, few thought we were viewing that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
The insurgency in Iraq is not likely to be put down in a year or even two since history shows such uprisings can last a decade or more, the United States' top military commander said on Friday. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said that in the past century, insurgencies around the world have lasted anywhere from seven to 12 years, making a quick fix to the problem in Iraq unlikely http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&u=/nm/20050226/wl_nm/iraq_myers_dc&printer=1
But the voting- be it 70% or 58%, regardless if they voted for a theocratic leadership, didn’t that prove the invasion was justified? (No)
Iraqi Local Councils a Bust Interesting piece on the quiet disappearance of most neighborhood "governing councils" in Iraq, the establishment of which had been touted as a Bush administration achievement in Iraq. The members no longer meet and many are in hiding, for fear of assassination.
Two councils the Monitor has tracked since late 2004 - in middle-class Hay Somer and the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sheikh Maruf - no longer exist, and many of their former members are in hiding. The fate of the councils provides grim evidence of how difficult it is for democracy to take root in Iraq.
Hundreds of neighborhood councils, now a dead letter as the elite politicians who won seats in Iraq's national election squabble over the spoils, were set up across Iraq in 2003 by the US military and the Research Triangle Institute, based near Raleigh, N.C., was given a contract with up to $460 million to build local governance. The idea was to prime the pump of citizen participation and create a new culture that would make democracy work for citizens in a tangible way. But nearly two years later, the money and effort has yielded few visible gains.http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0225/p01s03-woiq.htm
Bulletin: The Iraq Invasion was settled on a year before it happened! Tony Blair in fresh trouble over this; but, anyone who reads and thinks knew this during the run-up to the invasion.
Fresh evidence has come to light suggesting that Tony Blair committed himself to war in Iraq nearly a year before the American and British assault in March 2003.
The news will heighten the pressure on the Prime Minister to reveal how Britain was drawn into the conflict, in a week when a leading QC has called into question the legal advice on which the Government went to war. Such anxiety is felt in official circles that Special Branch detectives had questioned MPs over leaks, it emerged this weekend. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=615232
Last September, highly embarrassing leaked documents showed that as early as March 2002, the Prime Minister's foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, was assuring Condoleezza Rice of Mr Blair's unbudgeable support for "regime change". Days later, Sir Christopher Meyer, then British ambassador to the US, sent a dispatch to Downing Street detailing how he repeated the commitment to Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary. The ambassador added that Mr Blair would need a "cover" for any military action. "I then went through the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN Security Council resolutions." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=615231
What’s Happening, Iran Iran forges ahead…with what?
Russia and Iran signed a deal Sunday that would deliver nuclear fuel to the Middle East country for the startup of its first reactor — a project the United States had for years pushed Moscow to drop, claiming Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
Apparently, the Administration was hoping to use evidence of this and the allegations that Iran bought nulear designs and materials via the A.Q. Khan network to set up either a chastising of Iran at the UN or a proving that European failure to ‘tame’ the Islamic Republic… and thus control the agenda. But, once again, the intelligence is mixed, summarized by the conclusion that "there is no evidence the materials were assembled in a manner consistent with bomb-building." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56391-2005Feb26.html
Speaking of Khan, there is belated recognition of the fact that this dispensing of nuclear technology has been going on for a very long time.
Nuclear warhead plans that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold to Libya were more complete and detailed than previously disclosed, raising new concerns about the cost of Washington's watch-and-wait policy before Khan and his global black market were shut down last year. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-khan27feb27,0,2403259.story?coll=la-home-headlines
What’s Happening, Egypt: Democratizing?
A developing media consensus (?) that Mubarak’s proposed holding of multiparty presidential elections next year is the result of the momentum generated by the Iraq and Palestinian elections. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt27feb27,0,5950305.story?coll=la-home-headlines But, the NY Times notes, such an eventuality may be stalled by the Egyptian parliament which has the constitutional responsibility to author an amendment to get the ball rolling. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/international/middleeast/27egypt.html?hp&ex=1109566800&en=b4efbc57fd02e90b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bad Week for Bushies on Social Security
Mr. [Repub. Sen. Charles] Grassley, whose position as Senate finance chairman makes him the linchpin of any Social Security deal, said he still intended to negotiate a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But he warned that lawmakers would not act unless there was pressure from voters, and he said voters would not put pressure on Congress unless the president persuaded them that private accounts are necessary.
"I think 90 percent of the lifting is with the president," he said. Mr. Grassley said, when asked if he was reaching out to Democrats, "That process is starting, but it's starting very slow because too many Republicans and Democrats - how would you say it? - don't have the confidence that this issue is ever going to come up." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/politics/27cong.html?position=&pagewanted=print&position=
But, then, there’s Joe Lieberman. ‘Rumors’ are that he’ll cut a deal with the White House (via Lindsey Graham (R-SC), providing the Administration with the claim of ‘bi-partisan support’.
Republican Heretics: Raising taxes, protecting Medicaid, etc. David Sirota, late of the Center for American Progress:
In the South, for instance, two GOP congressmen-turned-governors have abandoned their past willingness to gut Medicaid funding and are now raising hell about budget shortfalls. Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher told Fox News last month that he's "very concerned about any cuts" to the low-income health care program, apparently forgetting how his party tried to cut Medicaid repeatedly when he was a House member. Similarly, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a hard-core economic conservative in Congress, actually proposed raising cigarette taxes to increase Medicaid funding.
In two other "red" states, this same sort of reversal occurred on tax policy. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley last year ignored his votes in Congress for deficit-expanding tax cuts and instead pushed a referendum to raise taxes on his state's top income earners to deal with budget shortfalls.
In Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels is calling for an income tax increase on his state's top income earners. This is the same Mitch Daniels who, as President Bush's budget director from 2001 to 2003, attacked congressional Democrats who proposed doing the very same thing. http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MDAmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NTg5MjAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNA==
Governor Arnold Tries the Propaganda Route He must be inspired by the White House efforts.
Using taxpayer money, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has sent television stations statewide a mock news story extolling a proposal that would benefit political boosters in the business community by ending mandatory lunch breaks for many hourly workers.
The tape looks like a news report and is narrated by a former television reporter who now works for the state. But unlike an actual news report, it does not provide views critical of the proposed changes. Democrats have denounced it as propaganda. Snippets aired on as many as 18 stations earlier this month, the administration said.
The tape opens with text suggesting introductory comments to be read by a news anchor: "If approved, the changes would clear up uncertainty in the business community and create a better working environment throughout the state."
The video shows construction workers, waitresses, nurses, farmworkers and a forklift operator at their jobs, and includes interviews with a farmer and a restaurant manager. The narrator says the proposal would permit workers to "eat when they are hungry, and not when the government tells them."
The tape makes no mention that organized labor opposes the changes, or that workers would have a harder time suing employers over missed meal breaks. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-video28feb28,1,5929480,print.story
Christian Right Flex the Muscle:
A Broadway run of the musical Jerry Springer - The Opera has been scrapped in the fallout from a Christian fundamentalist group's campaign against the award-winning show.
It is the latest twist in an extraordinary few days, which has seen Christian Voice - believed to be little more than a "one-man band" led by Stephen Green - pressure a cancer charity into rejecting proceeds from a gala performance of the show in London. A question mark now hangs over a UK tour of Jerry Springer due to take place in the autumn, with one theatre having withdrawn and at least one other considering its position.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=615201
-R
