Leila, a woman's rights activists still living in Iraq, said: "Initially many of us were very hopeful. We did not like foreign soldiers on our streets, but we were happy Saddam was gone. Once the general chaos and the looting settled down a bit, women were the first to get organised. Women doctors and lawyers started to offer free services to women. We started to discuss political issues and tried to lobby the American and British forces. But the Americans sent people to Iraq whose attitude was: 'We don't deal with women.'" [Presidential envoy Paul] Bremer was one. Iraqi women managed to get a woman's quota despite the Americans who opposed it. Their idea of women's issues was to organise big meetings and conferences and build modern women's centres. Do you think anyone went to visit these centres?".....

.....It isn't a surprise that many of the women I interviewed remember the past nostalgically.

great piece by joe bageant "Death by Digitalized Celebrity".

favorite hunter quote:

For a moment then, he became evasive, pensive. After a while he said, "Writing politics is not like it used to be. Even covering a war has no kick. It's like writers are being ordered back to cover the farm teams. Some new kind of rot is creeping into the scene. Something more dangerous than Nixon ever was.

liddy on education
Americans are becoming increasingly stupid. The greatest tragedy of our time is the disintegration of the public education system in this country. Even if half the young people they are turning out were geniuses, they can't communicate or write well enough to be effective.

leary's response, winking
Gordon wants to go back to the days when only 10 percent of Americans could go to college. Writing is a hieroglyphic art these days. And besides, only 10 percent of people are genetically wired, fired and inspired to do it. That makes it an elitist skill. Computers are going to replace hieroglyphics text as communication. Computers will be THE drug of the future.

If Bush and Dick Cheney, his vice-president, are the last men standing with responsibility for the Iraq war it is only because they are protected by their four-year terms of office. One former Bush stalwart told me: "If we had a parliamentary system, Bush would have lost a vote of confidence and have resigned by now."

Away from the Rose Garden the funeral cortege for the fundamentalist Rev Jerry Falwell was being assembled in the heart of Bush country in Lynchburg, Virginia. The portly 73-year-old televangelist had done his utmost to assemble the coalition of conservative Christians that went on to provide Bush with two presidential victories. Now he is dead and the government sustained by his followers is looking more and more like a corpse.

The writer Christopher Hitchens, a friend of Wolfowitz and foe of Falwell, says: "The main noise in Washington right now is that of collapsing scenery. The Republican party is in total disarray. They've been dropping their most intelligent people over the side while the presidential candidates are all outbidding each other to be nice about the revolting carcass of Falwell."
...
Gonzales has been under pressure to resign even longer than Wolfowitz, but he has not gone yet. If he goes, the air may go out of the Bush administration. When the president can no longer save his friends, there will be nobody left to save but himself.

..."triangulation" in politics means a set of leaders trying joining with their opponents to pass measures that run counter to those leaders' own supporters.
...
Can congressional leaders can pull the same move? Unfortunately, we're going to find out very soon, as congressional Democratic leaders are very clearly attempting to triangulate against their own party on the three issues the party ran on to win Election 2006.
...
IRAQ - POTENTIAL TRIANGULATION TO KEEP THE WAR GOING

Finally, Iraq - the big issue that helped Democrats win in 2006. The Associated Press reports that congressional Democratic leaders may be backing away from using their power to oppose the war, floating the possibility of an Iraq War supplemental bill that "would allow the president to waive compliance with a deadline for troop withdrawals." The New York Times says that the "likelihood that any final agreement will specify no withdrawal date for American troops from Iraq raised the possibility that antiwar Democrats will not support it, particularly in the House, and that the measure will need substantial Republican support to pass."
...
Thus, we get Democratic leaders who just months after election to the majority are attempting to triangulate against their own party and the progressive movement. That this strategy helped destroy the progressive agenda, the Democratic Party, and Democrats' electoral prospects for the better part of a decade seems of no concern to the people trying to perform these acrobatics - all they seem to be focused on is bringing a smile to David Broder's face and a truckload of Wall Street cash to their campaign coffers.

The testimony indicated that they were taught to use stilts (for the marshes of the Iraq/Iran border no doubt.)

They aren't military camps.
They aren't terrorist camps.
They're circus camps.

Stein was the first executive director of the Carter Center, and he is now the director of the university's Middle East Research Program and of the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel. Carter and Stein co-wrote a book in 1984 called "The Blood of Abraham." Stein said he was present in the room, as well, during a number of events recollected in Carter's new book, and his notes show "little similarity to points claimed in the book. Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information"

Link

Carter?? Yeah the guy who made us all understand the meaning of stagflation and the joys of 16% home mortage interst rates...

Carter?? Yeah the guy whose foreign policy ran the Shaw of Iran out of the country and let the Terrorists in. Worse, his tweedle dee tweedle dum response to the take over of our embassy set the stage for what terrorists could expect from the US
and led directly to 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and  the ticking nuclear confrontation that is just months away.

David Swanson has a great article on this game at Let's Try Democracy this morning.

What to watch out for:

Peace Movement Not So Good With Media or Elections

The corporate media in the United States will not allow a real peace candidate any time or substantive or respectful coverage. It will slander and mock and, above all, ignore. Then it will find people outside the media to quote as saying that they don't believe the candidate is "viable." The ideal spokespeople to make this announcement will be those perceived to agree with the peace candidate - that is, leaders of the peace movement. Then the story will be made to look like the media is reporting on who the public calls "viable," rather than determining who is viable and imposing that on the public. This is basic, fundamental electoral manufacturing of consent. And yet, every election, the peace movement plays along.

In this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a CODE PINK activist is quoted as follows:

"'Dennis is saying all the right things, but I just worry that he isn't getting the exposure that he needs and that he is not being taken seriously,' said [Rosalie] Yelen. She hasn't settled on a candidate to support but says she likes former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' stance on poverty."

To her credit, Yelen explained that the media was the problem; but the media was writing the article and went on to clarify that Kucinich was the problem. The reporter, Sabrina Earon, then quotes a couple of "experts" arguing that because Kucinich is behind in the polls he is a loser and will stay behind in the polls.

Then a peace activist is used as a perfect pawn to express exactly what the media wants expressed, namely that voters must choose between what they really want (even when it is an overwhelming majority position) and what's "viable," even when it is the position of a dwindling minority:

Thriving economy, healthy and naturalistic environment, educated population, cheap excellent seafood, mountains, ocean, and (nearby in Washington) an active volcano.  Also, more microbreweries than any other city in America.

Cops under investigation in Mt. Kisco for beating some poor slob to death and leaving him on the side of the road.

Two NYPD cops busted for trying to hold up a drug dealer in New Jersey...while claiming to be investigating terrorism.

Poor slob gets his apartment raided in Brooklyn...cops find no drugs, blame bad informant.  Poor slob is handcuffed in his underwear for over an hour, claims 2 grand went missing in the search.

Unarmed man gunned down in the Bronx during a traffic stop.  Guy may have been drunk and left the car in gear, bumped the officer and he opened fire.