Prometheus 6

By linking this, I get to kill multiple birds simultaneously. Once there, follow all the links.

I'm out for a while. 

Casey Urges Patience in Securing Baghdad
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A14

The deployment of 21,500 additional U.S. troops in Iraq probably will last at least until the end of the summer, a top general said yesterday, urging patience with President Bush's strategy while a bipartisan group of U.S. legislators continued pressing for a new plan.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, said that the primary focus of the additional U.S. forces will be to secure a violent Baghdad and that their mission, if it goes as planned, could last well into 2007. He and other defense officials have said in recent days that the new battle for Baghdad could take some time but that it will be apparent in coming months whether progress is being made.

Temporary 'Enjoyment Marriages' In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A01

BAGHDAD -- Fatima Ali was a 24-year-old divorcee with no high school diploma and no job. Shawket al-Rubae was a 34-year-old Shiite sheik with a pregnant wife who, he said, could not have sex with him.

Ali wanted someone to take care of her. Rubae wanted a companion.

They met one afternoon in May at the house he shares with his wife, in the room where he accepts visitors seeking his religious counsel. He had a proposal. Would Ali be his temporary wife? He would pay her 5,000 Iraqi dinars upfront -- about $4 -- in addition to her monthly expenses. About twice a week over the next eight months, he would summon her to a house he would rent.

Suppose I were to advance a parallel argument in response to suggestions that Black folks should get over slavery?

Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem
By Deborah Lipstadt
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A23

One cannot ignore the Holocaust's impact on Jewish identity and the history of the Middle East conflict. When an Ahmadinejad or Hamas threatens to destroy Israel, Jews have historical precedent to believe them. Jimmy Carter either does not understand this or considers it irrelevant.

His book, which dwells on the Palestinian refugee experience, makes two fleeting references to the Holocaust. The book contains a detailed chronology of major developments necessary for the reader to understand the current situation in the Middle East. Remarkably, there is nothing listed between 1939 and 1947. Nitpickers might say that the Holocaust did not happen in the region. However, this event sealed in the minds of almost all the world's people then the need for the Jewish people to have a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland. Carter never discusses the Jewish refugees who were prevented from entering Palestine before and after the war. One of Israel's first acts upon declaring statehood was to send ships to take those people "home."

I do have the rest of this talk. I don't know if it's desired or necessary. I've already gone into the pattern he's trying to establish. I haven't really made a point of how he conflates issues by reasoning reasonably for a step or two then attaching the term for the edge case to the result of his reasoning. That's because I just figured it out.

I do want you to hear him identify his fellow travelers out of his own mouth

A Tragedy of Errors
The police report on the killing of an unarmed man by a SWAT officer finds fault -- but raises too many questions.
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A22

"OUR GOAL is to be as open and transparent as possible," Fairfax County Police Chief David M. Rohrer said last week as he released a report on the fatal police shooting a year ago of an unarmed, nonthreatening suspect. The report confesses to "gaps in decision-making guidelines" and questionable actions in what should have been a routine arrest of Salvatore J. Culosi, a 37-year-old optometrist suspected of being a sports bookmaker.

But the story still merits more explanation. In the report the police -- for the first time -- officially acknowledge the identity of the shooter: Officer Deval V. Bullock, a SWAT unit member with 17 years' experience. So why was the SWAT unit called in to help round up a man who had been taking bets from the same undercover detective for months -- and who had no criminal record? Exactly how did Officer Bullock's finger wind up on the trigger of his .45-caliber pistol, which fired a single deadly round into Mr. Culosi's chest?

Hargrove, who will be 80 next week, cannot escape the fact that he and many white Virginians alive today were present when the spirit of Jim Crow reigned supreme in the Old Dominion....

Which gets me to the source of his consternation: the legislative proposal for Virginia to issue an apology for slavery. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. But if the effort must be made, why should the apology be limited to involuntary servitude? Why not include the sins of segregation and discrimination? Unlike slavery, those are sins that loads of Virginians, alive and well today, had something to do with.

In Virginia, More to 'Get Over' Than Slavery
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, January 20, 2007; A23

On last Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Frank D. Hargrove, a Republican lawmaker in Virginia's House of Delegates, said that instead of seeking a formal apology from the commonwealth for slavery, "black citizens should get over it." Hargrove also reportedly wondered how far such apologies should go. "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"

Frank Hargrove is one reason that young African Americans should never take their hard-won rights for granted. His outlook is also a wake-up call to some of my Jewish friends who think they have it made.

He has nothing I want, including an apology. But I'm not getting over slavery.

AEI introduces a new national magazine, The American. With six print issues a year and online updates every day, it will use the lens of business and economics to cover the full sweep of American life, from politics to media to food and fashion.

Why do I have an advertisement for a new AEI rag on my site? I'm not getting paid for it (in fact give is a second to remove the links...there you go).

I just think you should see that there's a significant demographic that

1. Believes "the lens of business and economics" is capable of covering "the full sweep of American life, from politics to media to food and fashion."
2. Thinks it would be a good idea

I think you should see this so that you know it is being done. Your needs and aspirations, both personal and collective, independent of the name of your most significant in-group, cannot even be seen from this perspective.

In interviews, however, soldiers in Sulaimaniyah expressed loyalty to their Kurdish brethren, not to Iraq. Many said they'd already deserted, and those who are going to Baghdad said they'd flee if the situation there became too difficult.

"I joined the army to be a soldier in my homeland, among my people. Not to fight for others who I have nothing to do with," said Ameen Kareem, 38, who took a week's leave with other soldiers from his brigade in Irbil and never returned...

Kareem said he knew that deserting was risky, but he said he'd rather be behind bars in Kurdistan than a "soldier in Baghdad's fire." Without the language and with his Kurdish features, he was sure he would stand out, he said. He's a Kurd, he said, and he has no reason to become a target in an Arab war.

Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007   
Kurdish Iraqi soldiers are deserting to avoid the conflict in Baghdad
By Leila Fadel and Yaseen Taha
McClatchy Newspapers

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - As the Iraqi government attempts to secure a capital city ravaged by conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs, its decision to bring a third party into the mix may cause more problems than peace.

Kurdish soldiers from northern Iraq, who are mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, are deserting the army to avoid the civil war in Baghdad, a conflict they consider someone else's problem.

...and you find an idiot. I would respond to Jesus' General with no fear of losing my dignity or of outing a total lack of of humor and intelligence.

My original email to him.

His reply and my response.

Dinesh D'Souza doesn't get the concept of quitting while you're...not as far behind as you could be.

Dear DD,

I hope it's ok to call you DD rather than Mr. D'Souza. I was touched by your concern about my possible drug use and am beginning to view you as a friend.

Your concern is unfounded. I do not use illegal drugs. In fact, the only drug I use regularly is a prescription medication called Oxycontin. I take it to relieve the pain I suffer from a pilonidal cyst (a big boil in the area of the, uh, "tailbone." It's a stress related disorder I acquired when I learned that Congress was considering reinstituting the draft. I understand that Rush Limbaugh suffers from the same affliction for similar reasons.

I wonder how close it is to what Cheney's energy task force was looking for.

Group: Cheney Task Force Eyed on Iraq Oil
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press

Friday 18 July 2003

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force appeared to have some interest in early 2001 in Iraq's oil industry, including which foreign companies were pursuing business there, according to documents released Friday by a private watchdog group.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."

The papers also included a detailed map of oil fields and pipelines in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates and a list of oil and gas development projects in those two countries.

Iraqi Draft Law on Oil Revenue Appears Close
By JAMES GLANZ

BAGHDAD, Jan. 19 — After months of tense bargaining, a cabinet-level committee has produced a draft law governing Iraq’s vast oil fields that would distribute all revenues through the federal government and grant Baghdad wide powers in exploration, development and awarding of major international contracts.

The draft, described today by several members of the committee, could still change and must be approved by the Iraqi cabinet and Parliament before it becomes law. Negotiations have veered off track unexpectedly in the past, and members of the political and sectarian groups with interest in the law could still object as they read it more closely.

But if approved in anything close to its present form, the law would appear to settle a longstanding debate over whether the oil industry and its revenues should be overseen by the central government or the regions dominated by Kurds in the north and Shiite Arabs in the south, where the richest oil fields are located.

Links to Articles on Somalia
The Editors (2007-01-11)

Somalia: The Next Afghanistan + Iraq?
Issa Shivji (2007-01-11)
Following US attacks in Somalia this week, Issa Shivji argues that Africans have constantly warned of the American military design on the Eastern seaboard of Africa. 

The collapse of the Islamic courts
Adan Abokor and Steve Kibble (2007-01-17)
The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia has with the backing of Ethiopia and the US taken control of Somalia. Whether the TFG can maintain and extend its control over the whole country will depend on if it can reign in the warlords and how it will deal with the defeated Islamists, write Adan Abokor and Steve Kibble.

And just a reminder:

CBS 2 Exclusive: Cop Accused Of Beating Woman
Attorneys For Yanceys: Lawsuit Likely Against Yonkers

Black Community Grapples with N.Y. Shooting

by Arun Venugopal

Shanghai Bribery Inquiry Ensnares Big Firms
By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI, Jan. 19 — The Shanghai police have detained 22 people in a bribery investigation that has ensnared some of the world’s biggest companies, including McDonalds, Whirlpool, McKinsey and ABB, according to reports in the state-run news media.

The government did not announce formal charges, disclose who was detained or offer a full list of the companies involved. But the news reports said today that the bribes in the case totaled about $500,000, and that some of the people detained were “company directors and senior employees.”

Ancient Reptile Had Two Heads
Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
1 hour, 29 minutes ago

Scientists have unearthed the fossil of a young, two-headed marine reptile that lived when dinosaurs still walked the Earth.

“My first reaction when I saw that fossil was of the ‘Oh my God!’ type,” said lead researcher Eric Buffetaut of the Center for National Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, France. “It’s something you would not really expect to see, because the chances of such a freak being fossilized are so slim.”

The discovery, detailed in of the Feb. 22 issue of the journal Biology Letters, marks the earliest known occurrence of a well-known birth defect, called axial bifurcation, in living reptiles. This double-noggin phenomenon occurs when an embryo is damaged and some body parts develop twice.

My name is Mike Connery. I’m the web editor for a nonprofit called The Opportunity Agenda. This week, as part of our Health Equity program, we rolled out a new tool that I think you'll find very interesting.

http://www.healthcarethatworks.org/maps/nyc/

The tool is a Google Map mash-up designed to visually illustrate the economic and racial disparities that exist in New York City's health care system, and drive all New Yorker's of conscience to take action by emailing their elected officials.

The website takes data on NYC hospital closures between 1985 and 2007, and overlays it on an interactive city-wide map that can display either the racial or economic demographics of the Five Boroughs during three periods: 1985, 1995, and 2005. Using this tool, visitors can visually see how hospital closures disproportionately impact poor neighborhoods and communities of color (particularly vivid in Central Brooklyn). Text on the sidebar guides the user through each decade and demographic overlay, explaining the changing conditions of the city and the impact that closures have on underserved communities.

The details remained sketchy yesterday, but critics of the administration said they suspected that one goal of the new arrangements was to derail lawsuits challenging the program in conventional federal courts.

“It’s another clear example,” said Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, “of the government playing a shell game to avoid accountability and judicial scrutiny.”

White House Shifting Tactics in Surveillance Cases
By ADAM LIPTAK

In a four-paragraph letter on Wednesday announcing that the Bush administration had reversed its position and would submit its domestic surveillance program to judicial supervision, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales used one phrase three times. A secret court, he said, had fashioned a way to allow the program to be monitored by the judiciary without compromising the need for “speed and agility.”

That phrase also captures, some critics say, the administration’s moving-target litigation strategy, one that often seeks to change the terms of the debate just as a claim of executive authority is about to be tested in the courts or in Congress.

Somalia may be at a turning point, with a potentially viable government for the first time since 1991.

Wrong. It's the second potentially viable government since 2006. The first one was just smashed.

Amid Chaos, Young Somalis Struggle to Get By
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 18 — A week ago, Yoonis Issay Alin was riding around in the back of a pickup, part of a squad of tough-looking guys with big trucks and big guns.

Now he is drooling on a metal cot, shot in the head over a parking spot.

All around him at Medina Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, young men writhe in steamy beds, their arms and legs trapped in traction ropes, their gunshot wounds the latest proof of a society out of control. It is hard to imagine there is enough gauze in this broken-down country to keep up.

Mr. Stimson’s appalling behavior should not be overlooked by the relevant bar disciplinary committee. Existing rules for lawyers deem it professional misconduct to do things that are prejudicial to the administration of justice. Even if the administration does not, the legal profession imposes a higher duty on those holding public office to obey proper standards of behavior.

Apology Not Accepted

It is hard to render a convincing apology when you are not really apologizing. Consider Charles Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of state for detainee affairs, who has been trying to spin his way out of his loathsome attempt to punish lawyers who represent inmates of the Guantánamo Bay internment camp.

Last week, Mr. Stimson expressed his “shock” that major American law firms would represent terrorism suspects, hinted that they were paid by unsavory characters and suggested that companies should reconsider doing business with them. On Wednesday, Mr. Stimson said he apologized and regretted that his comments “left the impression” that he was attacking the integrity of those lawyers.

It was not just an impression. It was exactly what he did. Mr. Stimson actually read out a list of law firms during an interview with a radio station friendly to the Bush administration.

In case you’re wondering, such a wholesale firing of prosecutors midway through an administration isn’t normal. U.S. attorneys, The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, “typically are appointed at the beginning of a new president’s term, and serve throughout that term.” Why, then, are prosecutors that the Bush administration itself appointed suddenly being pushed out?

The likely answer is that for the first time the administration is really worried about where corruption investigations might lead.

[TS] Surging and Purging
By PAUL KRUGMAN

There’s something happening here, and what it is seems completely clear: the Bush administration is trying to protect itself by purging independent-minded prosecutors.

Be clear: this is not a progressive. Think of him as a member of the Fighting 101st, Intelligence Division.

Giuliani and Broken Windows
by HarveyMilk
Thu Jan 18, 2007 at 06:50:01 PM PST

In an ongoing series, I want to post diaries that piss off those who cling to the "conventional wisdom" of this site. Not just for the sake of pissing people off (that's an added bonus), but to get us to think.

Preamble. It's information-free so ignore it.

I support the "Broken Windows" theory of law enforcement, and I support how Giuliani carried it out. It was necessary. It was effective.

All over Greenland and the Arctic, rising temperatures are not simply melting ice; they are changing the very geography of coastlines. Nunataks — “lonely mountains” in Inuit — that were encased in the margins of Greenland’s ice sheet are being freed of their age-old bonds, exposing a new chain of islands, and a new opportunity for Arctic explorers to write their names on the landscape.

“We are already in a new era of geography,” said the Arctic explorer Will Steger. “This phenomenon — of an island all of a sudden appearing out of nowhere and the ice melting around it — is a real common phenomenon now.”

The Warming of Greenland
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF

LIVERPOOL LAND, Greenland — Flying over snow-capped peaks and into a thick fog, the helicopter set down on a barren strip of rocks between two glaciers. A dozen bags of supplies, a rifle and a can of cooking gas were tossed out onto the cold ground. Then, with engines whining, the helicopter lifted off, snow and fog swirling in the rotor wash.

When it had disappeared over the horizon, no sound remained but the howling of the Arctic wind.

“It feels a little like the days of the old explorers, doesn’t it?” Dennis Schmitt said.

Mr. Schmitt, a 60-year-old explorer from Berkeley, Calif., had just landed on a newly revealed island 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle in eastern Greenland. It was a moment of triumph: he had discovered the island on an ocean voyage in September 2005. Now, a year later, he and a small expedition team had returned to spend a week climbing peaks, crossing treacherous glaciers and documenting animal and plant life.

Bet you can't guess who McWhorter is talking about... 

MediaMatters For America, via Qusan:

GIBSON: How liberal is he, John?

McWHORTER: Well, frankly, he is a standard-issue leftist that you would expect of somebody with his particular experience, and he doesn't exactly hide it. But it's true, and somehow we like to think that he represents some sort of hope of bringing us all together anyway. And that means that somehow he's going to bring together the Michael Moores and the Grover Norquists and everybody in between. And, again, I think the only reason that looks plausible is because we see something about his being brown that creates that. It's almost like he's mammy. And it kind of worries me.

Sounds like good news to you? Yeah...but you have to wonder what made Dallas County so fertile a ground in which to find these errors, and how much those conditions changed. 

Mr. Waller broke down once at the hearing, when describing how his car crashed on the way to a court proceeding in 2001, an accident that killed his pregnant wife, Doris, and the unborn daughter they had wanted to call Grace. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to live no more,’ ” he recalled, mopping his face with a tissue....

A 12th Dallas Convict Is Exonerated by DNA
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

HOUSTON, Jan. 17 — A 50-year-old Dallas man whose conviction of raping a boy in 1982 cost him nearly half his life in prison and on parole won a court ruling Wednesday declaring him innocent. He said he was not angry, “because the Lord has given me so much.”

The parolee, James Waller, was exonerated by DNA testing, the 12th person since 2001 whose conviction in Dallas County has been overturned long after the fact as a result of genetic evidence, lawyers said.

“Nowhere else in the nation have so many individual wrongful convictions been proven in one county in such a short span,” said Barry C. Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, the legal clinic that championed Mr. Waller’s case. In fact, Mr. Scheck said, those 12 such instances are more than have occurred anywhere else except the entire states of New York and Illinois since the nation’s first DNA exoneration, in 1989.

Tales from the Whitey watch
Former DEA agent recounts 2 years of stealth, frustrations
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff  |  January 18, 2007

They tracked him any way they could, watching him through binoculars, bugging his Ford Crown Victoria, flying over him in a Cessna plane to pick up his conversations, or trying to intercept them with an antenna atop the Dorchester Heights Memorial in South Boston.

It was a two-year game of cat and mouse, as federal investigators monitored the movements of gangster James "Whitey" Bulger and his lieutenants in a frustrating quest to snare him for extorting profits from drug dealers in the neighborhood.