Any regular Newsday reader knows Jimmy Breslin rarely pulls his punches, but his latest piece is downright vituperative.

I don't much for Bush the elder or the kid, but this is just harsh. Ouch.

Dear Tony,

You lack critical thinking skills. Furthermore, you're a shameless sycophant.

Love,

Hans

Digital news pioneer and print paper publisher, Vin Crosbie offers a fascinating look into the future of print and online publishing for the Annerberg Online Journalism Review.

Yes, it is a long read in a narrow format..a format I don't like at all. I've saved a local copy. It'll be fun to look back in ten years and see if Mr. Crosbie's vision comes to fruition.

I don't know why given the Pentagon's Special Environmental Report predicting radical climate change over the next twenty years -- calling it the most serious threat we face -- that the Democrats haven't attacked this issue with fervor.

If there is a single issue where ANY sane person unless blinded by an extreme case of cognitive dissonance, where the Democratic agenda is 180 degrees counter to Bush's, it is environmental protection.

I'll be hammering on this issue at the local level. I always have.

The big change here of course, is that it's the Pentagon doing the crowing about climatic disaster. This is a slam dunk for a scientifically briefed politician to really take a number of issues and tie them directly to their environmental impact.

As I posted a few days ago, I am also still puzzled as to why the GOP continues to use imagery of 9/11 when it happened under Bush's watch. Americans need to use reason to elect the president of the U.S.

Emotion is fine when selecting a date, but it should have little impact on who we put in the White House, Congress, or your local school board.

Gary North over at Lew Rockwell has a well intentioned, if somewhat patronizing piece about the hazards of Keynesian economic practice.

It should be a must read for the majority of Americans whose debt levels far exceed their liquid assets.

If you're one of those people, look past the pontificating, and read the piece. It's quite important.

Bush on Defense. De Fence? Defendse?

Bush Defends Campaign Focus on Sept. 11 Attacks

Bush defends record on economy

Bush defends tax cuts

Bush Defends Decision to Go to War in Iraq

And lastly:

Bush defends himself in valley

I didn't alter one of those headlines. One would think a sitting president would be on the attack, rather than playing defense.

A quick search of "Bush attacks" returned Bush attacks 'two-faced' Kerry

Two-faced? Neener, neener, neener. The silly season is upon us.

My one rule was to use only headlines of 03 March 2004 or more current.

I don't much care for Tom Daschle, and I have even less tolerance for sound bites when no issue should be reduced such low standards, yet I did chuckle when reading the NYT and Daschle uttered this gem:

"President Bush has said the economy is growing, that there are jobs out there. But you know, it's a long commute to China to get those jobs."

Indeed.

Knight-Ridder has a good piece on the alleged housing market bubble.

Full disclosure: I sold real estate in calendar year 2003. I am looking at buying in the future. I am also counting on lower buy-in prices. So please bear that in mind when I say anything about the near to intermediate term of the health of the real estate market.

Here is how I view the current and near to intermediate price structure for real property in my area. New Hampshire.

It was made abundantly clear to me that the markest was in the formative stages when real property 'values' began to really outpace both inflation and the stock market.

My view was further confirmed by area realtors that this was not a speculative bubble, but a reflection of the intrinsic value of real property. This is absurd. The first stages of a true bubble begin when reality and expectations diverge. Denial is indicative of bubble formation.

I am in the process of building a warehouse. I intend to sell rental space there, and also have a business established utilizing the warehouse so I'll have something to occupy my time during retirement. I can build far more cheaply than I can buy at present. That is a warning flag.

Interest rates, and inflation are without certain headed in one direction. Up. If you pay close attention to commodities prices vs. the real rate of wage growth there is a huge disconnect. This cannot continue with consumers already absorbing record levels of debt.

Do you think this is erroneous? How much more are you paying at the gas pump? For home heating/cooling? For food?

Amongst the best pre-inflationary indicators is the price of copper. It is almost unchallenged as a barometer of overall inflationary trends. This monthly graph illustrates the recent rise in the price of copper. It is almost 'straight up'. Looking at 2004 trends the same picture emerges -- if you use the moving average, rather than the week to week volatility.

Copper, energy prices, a weakened dollar, and the lack of real job growth -- both in numbers, and in wage stagnation -- all point toward higher inflation. We have seen scant evidence of inflation as technology and worker productivity increases have kept most hard goods prices relatively flat. The more volatile prices for energy and food show a clearer trend toward a period of higher inflationary pressures.

New home sales have already shown signs of cooling form the record levels of 2003. Not much of a cooling off, but enough to keep one's eye on. Consumer sentiment is weak, durable goods orders are in decline, and any number of geo-political crises could slam the brakes on what appears to be a weakening recovery.

I won't even touch deficits.

The trends that are in place are unprecedented this far into a recovery -- save for the Great Depression.

Since this is really about real estate prices, I'll end with a prediction. Within two years from this date, housing prices in my area will correct by thirty percent. Other markets will of course differ. Things in this area are utterly insane at present.

Happy home buying!

WaPo has more on unvetted Intel:

The Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector working with another government who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers, according to current and former senior intelligence officials and congressional experts who have studied classified documents.

In his presentation before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said "firsthand descriptions" of the mobile bioweapons fleet had come from an Iraqi chemical engineer who had defected and is "currently hiding in another country with the certain knowledge that Saddam Hussein will kill him if he finds him."

The claims about the mobile facilities remain unverified, however, and now U.S. officials are trying to get access to the Iraqi engineer to verify his story, the sources said, particularly because intelligence officials have discovered that he is related to a senior official in Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, a group of Iraqi exiles who actively encouraged the United States to invade Iraq.

Powell also cited another defector in his speech, an Iraqi major who was made available to U.S. officials by the INC, as supporting the engineer's story. The major, however, had already been "red-flagged" by the Defense Intelligence Agency as having provided questionable information about Iraq's mobile biological program. But DIA analysts did not pass along that cautionary note, and the major was cited in an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq and was mentioned in Powell's speech, officials said.

The administration's handling of intelligence alleging the existence of mobile bioweapons facilities has become part of several broad investigations now underway into the intelligence community's faulty prewar conclusions that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The Senate and House intelligence committees are conducting probes, as are the CIA and a commission appointed by President Bush.

The investigation of claims about mobile weapons labs, however, does not just cover prewar intelligence, but also includes the performance of the intelligence community well after the invasion.

Much more at link

This whole thing stunk from the onset. I'm so far out of the beltway, I may as well be on a different planet(one can dream). I never bought any of Powell's claims that he brought before the U.N. and that was before Glen Rangwala and Ibrahim al-Marashi revealed that much of the vaunted British dossier was plagiarized material. It borrowed heavily from al-Masrashi's doctoral thesis -- available online -- and two other outdated dubious sources.

Again, I am not presently, nor have I ever been involved in military intelligence. I am a gate process engineer. I have no special knowledge of intelligence issues. However, I accept nothing from persons of supposed authority. Simply because in my field, last year's process is likely a whole generation in the past. If the material is six months old, it may well be superceded.

It's a pretty geeky field, but it moves very fast.

From Democracy Now!

Anthropologists: Same Sex Marriage Pose No Threat to Civilization

The world's largest organization of anthropologists have responded to President Bush's charge that same sex marriage posed a threat to our civilization. The executive board of the American Anthropological Association issued a statement reading: "The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies."

Link

There goes the neighborhood..the hominid neighborhood.

Newsday:

WASHINGTON -- The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer's name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday.

Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

And the subpoenas asked for a transcript of a White House spokesman's press briefing in Nigeria, a list of those attending a birthday reception for a former president, and, casting a much wider net than previously reported, records of White House contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets.

The three subpoenas were issued to the White House on Jan. 22, three weeks after Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, was appointed special counsel in the probe and during the first wave of appearances by White House staffers before the grand jury.

The investigation seeks to determine if anyone violated federal law that prohibits officials with security clearances from intentionally or knowingly disclosing the identity of an undercover agent.

The subpoenas underscore indications that the initial stages of the investigation have focused largely on the White House staff members most involved in shaping the administration's message on Iraq, and appear to be based in part on specific information already gathered by investigators, attorneys said yesterday.

Fitzgerald's spokesman declined to comment.

READ THIS NOW Now. Okay? There is a lot more here.

Damn. A busted Bush Photo-op.

It was said on local radio, that Bush attempted for ten minutes to properly speak the name of Iraq's most powerful cleric; Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al Sistani, before giving up in vain. It was reported from Crawford that Bush then held up the following photograph of al-Sistani and said, "This is the guy that broke my photah-op. This Al fella."




K-R's Washington Bureau has more:

The scheduled signing of Iraq's interim constitution was indefinitely postponed Friday after five Shiite members of the Governing Council lodged 11th hour objections to some of its key provisions.

News that the deal over the document had fallen apart wrecked the U.S.-led coalition's plans for an upbeat, made-for-TV signing ceremony that was to have taken place at 8 a.m. EST inside the heavily fortified coalition headquarters compound--and carried live on Arabic and English news networks.

More than an hour after the signing was supposed to have happened, the six piece orchestra hired for the occasion had stopped playing, and the antique desk that had belonged to Iraq's King Faisal stood abandoned, 25 fountain pens sitting untouched atop it. A senior coalition official emerged to tell dozens of waiting journalists that "democracy is sometimes a messy thing."

The official said the council members would continue to negotiate, but no announcement had been made as of 7 p.m, or 11 a.m. EST. The official said that U.S. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer was involved in the negotiations, but would not seek to force the parties to an agreement.

The official said that the dispute did not involve so called "red line" issues about which the coalition had strong views.

It was an extraordinary turn of events that underscored the fragility of Iraq's political fabric, four months before the U.S.-led coalition is scheduled to hand over sovereignty. The interim constitution had been hailed by American and Iraqi politicians as a document unprecedented in the Arab world, a blueprint for Iraq's governance for years to come.

I hate to say I saw this one coming, but I've often called democracy a messy thing. If you read the whole article, and it is worth a read, you'll find that Iraqis seem a much better mannnered lot than the Texas House of Representatives.(I've no issues Texans, but for a couple of them)

Hey, it's our data, so let's have look.

Nonfarm employment was little changed (+21,000) in February, and the unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment levels in most of the major industries were little changed over the month.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons was 8.2 million in February, and the unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent, seasonally adjusted. Both measures are below their recent highs of June 2003. Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (5.1 percent), adult women (4.9 percent), teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.9 percent), blacks (9.8 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.4 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.7 percent in February, not seasonally adjusted.

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Total employment was down in February to 138.3 million, and the employment-population ratio--the proportion of the population age 16 and older with jobs--declined to 62.2 percent. The ratio was at or near that level for most of 2003. Over the month, the civilian labor force decreased by 392,000 to 146.5million, and the labor force participation rate fell to 65.9 percent.

The number of persons who work part time for economic reasons edged down in February to 4.4 million, seasonally adjusted. This category includes persons who indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.

About 7.2 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) held more than one job in February. These multiple jobholders represented 5.3 percent of the total employed, down from 5.6 percent a year earlier.

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

In February, about 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the laborforce, about the same as a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed, however, because they did not actively search for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. There were 484,000 discouraged workers in February, also about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The other 1.2 million marginally attached had not searched for work for reasons such as school or family responsibilities.

So, where did I get this data? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

What does it mean? Well, it's bad for Main Street, Wall Street and certainly is a bad omen for a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

This job report is pretty much across the board terrible when compared to forecasts.

The White House has spun this one like mad.

"Today's jobs report demonstrates the importance of having a president in the White House who is committed to a vigorous job creation agenda of lower taxes, lower health care costs and lower energy costs," said Terry Holt, a spokesman for the Bush/Cheney campaign."

Unfortunately, Mr. Holt doesn't tell us who this person is. Pity that.

The Kerry campaign, not surprisingly, saw a different picture.

"For over three years now, since the start of this recession, George Bush has promised the American people that new jobs are on the way," said John Kerry, the likely Democratic challenger. "But, he's over promised and under-delivered."

Makes for an easy jab, but I see no plan here. Still, this has to be a positive for Kerry.

Here's a sampling of economists' reactions..and you thought that they were without emotion. ;)

"There is only so much longer that this can go on," said Sherry Cooper, chief economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns. "No
question, however, the Bushies must be very nervous."

"We see nothing redeeming in this report," said Drew Matus, an economist for Lehman Brothers. "This is another terribly
dreary number," said Bill Cheney, chief economist for John Hancock Financial.

"Yuck," said Joshua Shapiro, chief economist for MFR.

Josh sums up my feelings pretty well.

I think in all fairness we should give the last word to Secretary of Treasury Snow. It's his economy, his baby if you will, so he's sure to have a keen insight into what's happening here.

"The president's tax cuts are working." -- Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Okay, so maybe "keen insight" was a bit of a stretch, but I'm sure he sees something that all those dismal economists do not.

And yes, Mr. Snow did utter that sentence shortly after the BLS release. I heard him say it, but I can't find a web source. Dang. I'll update it once I do. The rest of the quotes came from my morning mail bag, and from CNBC.

The stock market is pretty flat at present, with the Dow up slightly, and the Nasdaq Comp. losing 7.

Wall Street typically sees these reports differently from Main Street. Weak labor markets make the likelihood of the FMOC raising short term interest rates less likely. So, it's sort of a mixed bag.

Bush seeks to put an end to his military history debacle. Plans to make-up for gaps in his service record this weekend

WMD FOUND! SADDAM MOVED SARIN GAS TO SECRET LOCATION

Sarin found in al-Abama

Okay, I'll admit it. I was wrong about WMD.

One more. Re: Bush 9/11 Imagery ad.

This from a victim's sister.

"The country needs to be reminded of 9/11," said Patricia Riley of Staten Island, N.Y., who lost a sister in the terrorist attacks on the trade center towers.

"The president has every right to point to his leadership during that time," Riley said. "We're about to elect another leader, and we have to make decisions on what a person is capable of doing to protect our national security."

***********************************

So, what exactly is the nexus between images of the WTC with an American flag in front, and Bush's leadership? I would say nothing.

With all due respect to Ms. Riley, it's not likely that anyone old enough to understand 9/11 will ever forget.

Are you glad that Perle's gone from the Defense Policy Board? I am. But I never knew just how paranoid and simplistic his worldview was until I read this. Perle is absolutely mad. He sees enemies everywhere.

Good riddance.

Two new Get Your War On panels. Check 'em!

GYWO and The Boondocks are my favorite strips.

News that you won't likely see elewhere:

Insurance Co. Warns of Global Warming Catastrophe

GENEVA: The world's second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, warned today that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threatened to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.

In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs of such disasters threatened to double to $150 billion ($NZ224 billion) a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30-40 billion ($NZ45-60 billion) in claims, or the equivalent of one World Trade Centre attack annually.

"There is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such a point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time," Swiss Re said in the report.

"The human race can lead itself into this climatic catastrophe – or it can avert it."

The report comes as a growing number of policy experts warn that the environment is emerging as the security threat of the 21st century, eclipsing terrorism.

Scientists expect global warming to trigger increasingly frequent and violent storms, heat waves, flooding, tornadoes, and cyclones while other areas slip into cold or drought.

"Sea levels will continue to rise, glaciers retreat and snow cover decline," the insurer wrote.

Link to Reuters piece..much more there!

Let that sink in..the financial fallout of one WTC per annum.

Now, what is the most important issue in the 2004 election?

When business starts sounding the alarm concerning global climate change, hopefully governments will stop sitting on their hands. I'm not going to hold my breath. Not just yet.

McClellan today:

MR. McCLELLAN: All right, good morning. I'll go quickly here, since we're about to land. The President had his usual briefings before we departed. Upon arrival the Freedom Corps greeter is Dana Karcher, who began to volunteer with the Tree Foundation of Kern, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the community by planting trees in Kern County. And she's also volunteered with Keep Bakersfield Beautiful the last few years.

And the President then will, in Bakersfield, participate in a conversation on the economy where he'll highlight how the tax relief has helped benefit families and small businesses, and talk about his six-point plan, as well. Then we go to Santa Clara for a Bush-Cheney luncheon. Then we go to Crawford for the remainder of the day and for the next few days.

Q: Will those fundraising remarks preview what we're going to hear for the next eight months -- that sharp, new attack on Kerry by name?

MR. McCLELLAN: In terms of the political side, you can leave those questions to the campaign. But I think you can expect that -- we're at a critical period in our nation, and the President will continue to talk about the clear choices that the American people face. And he will continue to talk about our highest priorities: winning the war on terrorism and continuing to strengthen our economy even more.

Q: Some of the families of the 9/11 victims have criticized the President for using these -- using 9/11 footage in those ads. Are you exploiting the situation, and what do you say to that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, September 11th was a defining moment for our nation. It was an experience that all Americans shared. It is the reason we are still at war on terrorism. And all of us, as Americans, shared in the experience of that tragic day. And it is vital to our future that we learn what September 11th taught us. September 11th changed the equation in our public policy. It forever changed our world. And the President's steady leadership is vital to how we wage the war on terrorism.

Q: Shouldn't that be off-limits to politics, Scott, that tragedy?

MR. McCLELLAN: September 11th? September 11th, as I said, it taught us that we must confront dangers before it's too late, and that we must continue to take the fight to the enemy. There's a clear choice for Americans in how we confront the threats of terrorism.

Q But the President -- the party is using it for political purposes. I mean, it's pretty clear now --

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, these are threats that didn't happen overnight; that September 11th taught us that we must confront these threats by taking the fight to the enemy.

All right, thanks, sorry.

END 9:06 A.M. PST

I think Scotty got a mite testy there.

An historical note: The war on terror was declared by Ronald Reagan, again by Bill Clinton, and most famously by W. His father never uttered the phrase as far as I can tell. I should add that no one since Reagan has declared the WoT over.

It's absurd to even suggest that the use of 9/11 symbolism is anything but political. But this is a sword that cuts both ways. 9/11 not only happened under Bush's watch, but he has also been anything but forthcoming concerning the turning over of pre-9/11 intelligence data to the 9/11 Commission.

Here's the link to the DPB

UPDATE: misleader.org mines a few delicious quotes.

I got 'dissed' by Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton in today's Q & A.

Here were my questions:

Dear Ms. Norton,

Given that your an attorney by training, not a trained scientist, you must depend on others for their input on matters of importance concerning the environment. Do you feel that your team is pressured to provide ambivalent results in order to enable some of the less palatable aspects of President Bush's environmental agenda to be given consideration?

Does industry play a big role in policy development?

One example might be that just last month it was revealed that the EPA used utility industry recommendations in crafting new proposals to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Now, even more industry material has turned up in the Environmental Protection Agency's proposals.

Do you view industry information as the most valid assessment? If so, why? If not, why?

Are you happy with President's environmental agenda? Are you able to operate with autonomy? How much, if any, political pressure would you say there is to make the available data sets fit the President's environmental agenda?

Thanks for your Time,

Todd

I was even nice about it. ;)

In a story you're not likely to hear of elsewhere, pResident "forward thinker" Bush dismissed two members of his President's Council on Bioethics last Friday afternoon in a move that has been dubbed a "very ill-advised decision" by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology president Bettie Sue Masters.

Elizabeth Blackburn, a University of California, San Francisco, biochemist and former president of the American Society for Cell Biology, and William May, a medical ethicist and former head of the Maguire Center of Ethics at Southern Methodist University, received notification last Friday that their service on the council was no longer needed.

What horse$hit.

Blackburn told The Scientist that she received a call from the White House personnel office last Wednesday (February 28) requesting her to call them back on Friday afternoon. When she returned the call, she was notified of her dismissal. Although she and May frequently expressed views opposing those of the president and the council's chairman Leon R. Kass, she said that she had "no inkling" that a dismissal was imminent and that she has not been contacted by Kass at all.

Replacing Blackburn amd May are likely some sycophants that infuse their science with healthy dose of religion.

Bush is a menace to progress on virtually every scientific front. Hell, he's a menace on virtually every front.

I watched the News Hour with Jim Lehrer last night, and they showed a bush/Cheney '04 ad that will is airing today. Bush is himself, which is awful, and he talks about how he knows what's best for America and other fables.

It begs the question, if you know what's 'right' for America now, what the hell have you have you been doing for the last three and a half years?

The overarching theme is "Steady Leadership." Get me a Haz-mat suit and a barf-bag. STAT!

America would be well served if this one Bush were pruned..preferably at the base :)

Alright, enough clowning around at the expense of Dear Leader. I gotta get stuff done.

Yes. This is my new schedule. I just got another twenty hours tacked on to my work schedule -- for no extra pay! Lovely!

It was sort of a compromise. I look after less senior engineers for four day/week albeit for much longer hours, and get three full days off per week.

This going to bed at 8PM $hit is going to take some getting used to. I'm on 16 hour days until the end of summer. I've done it before, and I rather like it once I get synched.(I actually don't do a great deal at work, just check others work and do small amounts of research..no I'm not that old, but the Co. I work for has given me a pretty responsible position)

I also do weddings and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Well, no I don't.

I'm feeling pretty low-res right now, but surprisingly chipper.

In political news today..nothing has happened as of yet. I should have ample opportunities to post during the light hours of the day.

So, expect more bs!

More Grown-ups, please.

Doubts cast on efforts to link Saddam, al-Qaida so reads the K-R headline.

While this is not news in and of itself, the story has the usual cloak and barf-bag "unnamed senior U.S. Officials." Isn't there a person in Washington with testicles?

All of the specious sources for the Hussein al-Qaeda are named.

Iraqi defectors.

Cherry-picked intel.

Unproven material being stated as fact.

You know the White House drill by now.

It's very much like the three most important things in real estate, with a twist. Just replace; location, location, location with obfuscation, obfuscation, obfuscation and you win a prize!

Water on Mars? What's the big deal?

We at pure bs have downloaded and digitally enhanced a number of Martian images. One example is displayed here.

Stay tuned as more images become available.

I know. I didn't follow through last evening.

Here are a few links to Iraqi stories of the past few days.

Jordanian soldier in Iraq wounded in drive-by shooting

Iraq Blasts Kill 143 on Shi'ite Holy Day

Iraqi Gunmen Shoot at Kurdish Officials

Blast hits oil pipeline in northern Iraq

Another Pole Wounded in Iraq

Gunmen open fire on Kurdish officials, wound three bodyguards

Rocket strikes on Baghdad telephone exchange disrupts international calls

One from Afghanistan:

One Shi'ite killed, 16 wounded in Kabul clash

Yes. Before you say to yourself, "Hey, that's just a bunch of links," I know. Again, it's mediation day. So bear with me, please.

I see that that Vee Pee Dick commented yesterday that Aristide had "worn out his welcome." What a statesman. So, we are supposed to believe that the U.S. di not have a direct hand in Aristide's ouster, more of tacit approach.

This is not inconsistent with what Aristide reportedly told Congressman(?) Maxine Waters as reported by Democracy Now!

Yesterday, Democracy Now! repoerted that:

South African ambassador to the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, says President Aristide did not request asylum or exile in South Africa, nor did the South African government deny him asylum or exile as alleged by the US State Department and The New York Times.

The US government/corporate media psychological operations campaign against Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been in full swing for weeks. Aristide has been portrayed as "fleeing Haiti" "abandoning his country" and "resigning" his post. Over the past 24 hours, a very different picture has emerged. As we have reported extensively on Democracy Now!, it is becoming very clear that Aristide was forced out of Haiti in what can only be called another U.S. coup; that he was threatened by US officials and that he was taken to Africa against his will.

I don't know where the truth lies(no pun intended), but Democracy Now! seems to taking the lead in coverage of the events as they unfold.

Other than that, a big Congrats to John Kerry is in order. It's all over now that Edwards has opted not to continue. I think a Kerry/Edwards would be a strong team in November. Polls show the ticket beating Bush/Cheney if the election was to held today.

If Bush survives the myriad investigations surrounding his Administration, the debates should be hoot. Kerry seems to able to turn a phrase quite well, and Bush can do nothing that isn't scripted.

I think Kerry's main problemthat he is likely to be seen as an elitist -- and our watchdog media and GOP strategistswill make sure that he is seen as such. Massachusetts, elitist liberal who is out of touch with America..as opposed to corporatist wars of choice Bush. Permawars for profit, now that's American!

It seems likely the RWEC, is going to resort to smear tactics. Running on Bush's record doesn't seem like a effective tool to win him the election.

Okay, now there's some bs. :)

Yeah, I'm a total slacker. I have been super busy. Not blogging obviously. After tomorrow, I should have a bit more time to see what's going on in the world.

I see that things in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq are still aboil. Israel is 'dissin' The Roadmap, and Haiti's just a mess.

I know it's Super Tuesday here in the States, but can anybody call this day 'Super' with all of violence occurring everywhere?Simultaneously? I know I can't.

Tragic Tuesday is more appropriate. I'll write more and provide links and splash of bs a little later.

I'm preparing for a mediation hearing tomorrow..It's a patent issue. I'm lead geek for the plaintiff. So, I've been lining up my ducks. The attys. tell me it's a slam dunk, but I really don't like providing any form of testimony. I make stuff. I don't yammer on incessantly except in this blog ;)

Thanks for staying tuned through this fiasco. I promise to offer you more bs as of tomorrow night..I think I can just muster up a slew of links, and add a touch of bs later.

By the way, H₂O confirmed on the red planet..most exciting.

I was on my offline this evening when I just got a piece of mail..

Aristide Kidnapped? Zoinks.

I have to go. This is a developing story.

Hey! Where did the smart grown-ups go?

"A new U.S. proposal for Middle East reform tries to tackle the region's political, economic and social problems without mentioning the problem Arabs say lies at the heart of the region's woes -- the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Now that's clever.

"In a copy of the initiative seen by Reuters, Washington urges the Group of Eight industrialised nations to pour cash into promoting free elections, women's empowerment, judicial reform and market economies in the Middle East.

"The paper is based on two U.N. development reports U.S. officials say prove that the region's problems stem from internal political and economic stagnation, not Israeli or U.S. policies."

Hey! Our policies are tops in the Mid-East. Who knew? Of course the U.S is free of any wrong-doing. Just look at how we've run our Mid-East policies over the last 75 years...Flawlessly. The only adjective that works.

Reuters has the amazing story See cognitive dissonance again. Brother.

Iraq. Again, K-R's Washington Bureau delivers the goods.

This piece deals with some of the things I've been going on about, such as expansion of the IGC, the role of Sharia, and women's rights -- as they are involved with the 'tranferrance of power to the Iraqis.' (We'll still have the bigger guns) *clears throat*

In reading the piece, you can't help but be struck with the challenges involved, and just how fluid the situation is in Iraq. The obligatory tease:

A January opinion poll in six major cities showed that 45 percent of respondents believe that "conditions for peace and stability" are improving. Salaries are higher, there are more goods in the markets, and people are less afraid to walk the streets in most cities.

In the same poll, by Daghir's firm, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies, 70.7 percent of respondents either somewhat or strongly agreed that "democracy offers Iraq the hope of peace, stability and a better life, while the people attacking coalition forces offer only chaos."

However, the U.S.-led occupation and the political vacuum created by almost a year without a sovereign government, coupled with the continuing unemployment and gaps in basic public services, has caused widespread frustration.

"Given more than three decades of despotic rule, a ruined economy, a devastated country and the collapse of state institutions, conditions in Iraq are daunting," said a recent United Nations fact-finding report. "The underlying tensions could fuel the existing potential for civil strife and violence."

I download and save a local copy pf nearly everything that I link to...reading back over the past years worth of good material it is abundantly clear that we were horribly mis-informed by our leadership here in the States. I won't use the 'L' word, because some people continue to harbor belief in spite of evidence supporting a different conclusion. See cognitive dissonance for more color.

Rape in the Military. I don't know if this has been widely disseminated in any other medium but print/web, but it is appalling.

Here's that NYT Article:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — The United States military is facing the gravest accusations of sexual misconduct in years, with dozens of servicewomen in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere saying they were sexually assaulted or raped by fellow troops, lawmakers and victims advocates said on Wednesday.

There have been 112 reports of sexual misconduct over roughly the past 18 months in the Central Command area of operations, which includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, military officials said on Wednesday.

The Army has reported 86 incidents, the Navy 12, the Air Force 8 and the Marine Corps 6.

Military officials said that the bulk of the charges were being investigated and that some had already resulted in disciplinary actions, but they could not provide specifics. They said a small number of the reports had turned out to be unfounded.

In addition, about two dozen women at Sheppard Air Force Base, a large training facility in Texas, have reported to a local rape-crisis center that they were assaulted in 2002. The Air Force Academy in Colorado is still reeling from the disclosure last year of more than 50 reported assaults or rapes over the last decade.

The latest accusations are the most extensive set of sexual misconduct charges since the Navy's Tailhook incident of 1991 and the Army's drill sergeant scandal about five years later. In response, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month ordered a senior-level inquiry into the reported sexual assaults in Iraq and Kuwait, and how the armed services treats victims of sexual attacks. The Army and Air Force have opened similar investigations.

The issue came to a boil at a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, where Senate Democrats and Republicans sharply questioned the Pentagon's top personnel official and four four-star officers for what the lawmakers said were lapses in the military's ability to protect servicewomen from sexual assaults, to provide medical care and counseling to victims of attacks and to punish violators.

Lawmakers said they were particularly appalled by reports that women serving in roles from military police to helicopter pilots had been assaulted by male colleagues in remote combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, where immediate medical treatment and a sense of justice seemed to be lacking.

"No war comes without cost, but the cost should be born out of conflict with the enemy, and not because of egregious violations by some of our own troops," said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican on the Armed Services personnel subcommittee.

Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, voiced concern that senior Pentagon leaders had not sufficiently addressed the problem. "I don't get a sense of outrage by military leadership," Mr. Nelson said.

The Pentagon's personnel chief, David S. C. Chu, assured the lawmakers that the Defense Department was treating the issue seriously and that "all policies are on the table" as part of the 90-day review, whose findings and recommendations are due by April 30.

He said the immediate priority would be to provide better care to assault victims.

In an effort to blunt criticism that the defense officials were not doing enough to address the issue, the Pentagon moved up the release of a Congressionally mandated survey conducted in 2002 — a period before most of the latest rash of complaints occurred — that found that the number of servicewomen who said they had been sexually assaulted had declined to 3 percent from 6 percent in 1995, when the last survey was taken.

But some senators questioned the survey's methodology and timing. "Why in the world did it take two years to take a survey?" asked Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who heads the full committee, noting that politicians routinely ordered overnight polls for their campaigns.

The latest sexual assault scandals have burst into full public view largely because of a recent series of investigative articles by The Denver Post and growing pressure from lawmakers, especially from women in Congress like Senator Collins and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

But the numbers of reported assaults revealed on Wednesday exceeded the scope of what the Post articles had described. Christine Hansen, executive director of The Miles Foundation, a victims' advocacy group in Newtown, Conn., told senators at the hearing that it had received reports of 68 cases of sexual assault, mainly from servicewomen in Iraq and Kuwait.

The women's complaints ranged from the lack of emergency medical care and rape kits, to incomplete criminal investigations into their reports to retaliation by peers for reporting an assault, she said.

"We may just be beginning to see what the problem is," Ms. Hansen said in a telephone interview after the hearing.

The reported assaults have produced action and reviews in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

At a budget hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee said in response to a question that many sexual assaults went unreported. "We don't want that," Mr. Brownlee said. "We want an environment where these young women will feel free to report."

Senior officials from all the services said they were reviewing and, in some cases, increasing their training. Gen. William L. Nyland, the assistant Marine Corps commandant, told senators that beginning March 1, all newly enlisted marines will receive sexual-assault awareness and prevention training. Marine officers already receive the instruction.

I have no idea if any of the Male GOP leadership has spoken out these acts of barbarism. The NYT piece mentions nothing of them.

Am I the only one that finds it more than a bit ironic that a group comprised mainly of old white guys has an incredible amount of interest in protecting the 'unborn,' while failing to even acknowledge, much less advocate, for the very women over whose reproductive choices they dictate?

Hypocritical wimps.

Here's a note for you:

To the Editor:

Re "Military Women Reporting Rapes by U.S. Soldiers" (front page, Feb. 26):

What kind of leadership scrambles for Band-Aids when faced with appalling wounds that could have been — and should have been — prevented?

According to your article, the Pentagon, the military leadership and the Senate are focusing almost exclusively on the lack of treatment and grievance procedures available to servicewomen after they have endured sexual assault by their male colleagues. Indeed, medical care, rape crisis programs and institutional receptiveness to reports of assault are all vital to servicewomen.

But for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to beg the question of why the military fosters a culture in which sexual violence may flourish in the first place is shameful. And for the Marine Corps to have waited until 2004 to train its recruits in the prevention of sexual assault is outrageous.

While Americans owe a great debt of gratitude to our servicemen and women for their sacrifices, the military is in serious danger of forfeiting our good will by its apparent refusal to stamp out misogyny in its ranks.

VICTORIA JUEDS
Brooklyn, Feb. 26, 2004

Right on, Victoria!

Bush at 47%..the trend is not looking good for Mr. Bush.

Link to poll, and Kerry's surge.

A friend just gave me a Kenny Wayne Sheperd disc of his favorite KWS acoustic songs. I must say, I thought KWS was just a Stevie Ray Vaughn knock-off..I no longer feel that way. This thing rocks. There is an eleven minute live version of Voodoo Child that is simply A-mazing.

Four Iraq Pieces.

Residents Rally As US Soldiers Kill Iraqi, Injure Another

Polish Troops Fire on Pilgrims in Iraq

Police Officer Nilled in New Shooting in North Iraq

Iraq blast kills Estonian soldier

Now I am off to see a film. No, not Gibson's. This is a 'private viewing' ;)

Going to be a super busy week. I have a mediation hearing, an appointment with my acct. re: taxes, and a host of other additional tasks to perform.

I'll try and make at least one entry per day.

Oh, the political part of this entry: Bush orders bin Laden caught Oh, so NOW we want bin Laden captured. What was that whole deal in Iraq about anyhow? 550 U.S. Service people killed and thousands of Iraqis for what? To satisfy some sort of weird Oedipal thing I suppose.