Niews & views …

As the Independent reports, British armed forces are preparing to intervene in future wars over water. Tony Blair will now host a British "crisis summit" about this.

But why is this a British or Western problem?

Cont. reading: Water Crisis

From the headlines one should think that the UAE/US port managing deal will get an additional review:

Via Google News

Dubai lets US panel examine port deal
San Diego Union Tribune, United States – 34 minutes ago
Ports buyer requests 45-day review of deal
CNN – 2 hours ago
UPDATE 1-White House welcomes review of Dubai ports deal
Reuters – 3 hours ago
Second Ports Review Aims to Avoid Showdown
ABC News – 3 hours ago
DP World goes along with probe
Australian, Australia – 3 hours ago

But check Friday’s (!) press briefing with National Security Advisor Steve Hadley:

Cont. reading: Media Failure CLXXIII

In a piece at Crooks and Liars, Glenn Greenwald calls for a realistic debate about U.S. troop withdraw from Iraq:

Being opposed to the war before it began does not necessarily mean that one must be in favor of withdraw now. Even if it would have been preferable not to have invaded, the reality is that we have invaded. So the question now becomes – how do we best rectify the disaster we have created? If our withdrawing would worsen the security situation in Iraq, then demanding that we withdraw anyway is a form of easy moralizing which cannot actually be morally justified.
…
There is a compelling argument to make that we should withdraw our troops. But that argument can only be based on the premise that our troops — contrary to the views of the elected Iraqi government — are doing more harm than good, not that the invasion was unjustified in the first place.

Let us forget for a moment that even 10 weeks after the election, there is no Iraqi government. There are also no signs that there will be some weeks from now.

Cont. reading: Iraq Withdrawal

My best bet: One of the two pieces has the facts wrong.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Saturday that the world body is hobbled "by bad management, by sex and corruption" and a lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions.
…
"We find an organization that is deeply troubled by bad management, by sex and corruption and by a growing lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions that are given to them," Bolton told an audience at a Columbia Law School symposium held by the Federalist Society, a conservative law organization.

Bolton Blasts U.N. ‘Sex and Corruption’, Feb. 26, 2006

Court records concerning the divorce of John R. Bolton, the Bush administration’s nominee to become the next ambassador to the United Nations, show his first wife fled the couple’s marital home when he was traveling abroad in mid-August 1982.
…
Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department despite inquires posed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Mr. Flynt has obtained information from numerous sources that Mr. Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato’s Retreat, the popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
John Bolton’s Divorce – Group Sex Allegations, May 13, 2005

(RBN) – Michael Reagan, son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is blasting National Review Editor at Large William F. Buckley Jr. for declaring that the U.S. won’t be able to win the war in Iraq, saying Buckley ought to be
"hung for treason."

"William Buckley should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!" Reagan told his Radio America audience on Monday.

Reagan was reacting to Buckley’s comments earlier in the day, when the top neoconservative said "Our mission has failed."

In a National Review Online article, Buckley declared the American objective in Iraq to have failed and urged on different plans to be made on the base of an acknowledgment of defeat.

B’Tselem’s investigation indicates that the roads subject to the regime may be classified into three categories based on the severity of the restrictions on Palestinian travel on these roads: completely prohibited, partially prohibited, and restricted use roads.

• Completely prohibited roads – The first category consists of roads for the exclusive use of Israeli citizens. ..
• Partially prohibited roads – The second category includes roads on which Palestinians are allowed to travel only if they have special permits issued by the Civil Administration ..
• Restricted use roads – The third category includes roads on which Palestinian vehicles are allowed to travel without a special permit, but access to the roads is restricted by concrete blocks and other obstacles. ..

The forbidden roads regime has forced West Bank Palestinians to use long and winding routes rather than roads that lead directly from one town or district to another. Travel on these alternate roads disrupts all aspects of daily life in the West Bank, in such areas as the economy, health, and education, and gravely affects social and family life. In addition, Palestinians suffer the insult and humiliation that are part and parcel of the measures used by Israeli security forces to enforce the discriminatory roads regime.
Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime

The Defense Department is considering a new, low-tech approach to countering roadside bombs that are the scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq — construct new roads for supply convoys that simply bypass densely populated, high-threat areas.

The Army is seeking $167 million in military construction funds as part of the Pentagon’s soon-to-be detailed $65.3 billion supplemental spending request for fiscal year 2006 to pave roads capable of supporting two-way traffic, complete with shoulders, drainage structures and interchanges to connect with existing supply routes, according to a draft version of the request.

Rather than trying to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) head-on with new technologies and tactics, the Defense Department is looking to reduce risk to convoys by charting routes around danger zones.
…
DoD Plans New Roads to Avoid Iraqi IEDs

Just another one …

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Income Tax Course

As part of its ongoing work to remediate control weaknesses in its corporate tax function, the company said that it will restate its results for fiscal years 2005 and 2004, as well as previously reported quarterly results for fiscal 2006. The restatement pertains principally to errors in determining the company’s state effective income tax rate, resulting in a cumulative understatement of its state income tax liability of approximately $32 million as of April 30, 2005.
H&R Block Reports Third Quarter Financial Results

"A joy for all who see" is the original name of the city Samarra.

But now, this beautiful and historic mosque in Samarra is a ruin. Whoever wanted to sow more sectarian strife in Iraq certainly picked the right target and time. The violence is growing by the hour.

Raed says, whoever planed this, will not succeed. Riverbend is just very afraid and Christopher Allbritton thinks the situation will get worse now.

The Shia will need to vent somewhere. If their leaders are smart and really want to prevent a civil war, they will direct the outrage to the only other available group – the occupation force.

Even if the U.S. might not be directly responsible for this, without its war of aggression on Iraq, the mosque would still be as pretty as it was. That logic will not escape anyone.

The political influence of the United States in the Middle East is getting less by the day. Rice, trying to isolate Hamas, has just been snubbed in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

But now she is off to Lebanon to get pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud removed from office. If she succeeds, a new Lebanese civil war will start. Now that would be a great success.

To support Rice’s standing during her visit in the Arab world, Israel bulldozed a new public park and playground in the West Bank. You see, there was no Israeli building permit.

A fun detail: US AID had payed for the project.

I wonder who payed the bulldozer.

When a British shipping and transport service company, like P&O, manages U.S. ports, nobody cares. But when Dubai World Ports buys P&O and now continues to manage those ports, all hell opens up.

The funny thing is to watch Democrats and Republicans united in fighting the deal against a Bush who, embedded in Middle East corporate interests, threatens to veto any attempt to stop it.

The mask of "terror protecting" comes off and his real face of "corporate money" is there to see for all.

Cont. reading: The Port Deal

The role of the government at this point is to continue to spend research dollars, to help push technologies forward; is to get these technologies to be even more competitive in the marketplace. And I’m calling on Congress to join us on this most important energy initiative. (…) And of all the issues, becoming less dependent on foreign sources of energy is an issue that we ought to be able to unite, and show the American people we can work together to help advance the technologies that will change the world in which we live.
President Discusses Solar Technology and Energy Initiatives in Michigan ,
Feb. 20, 2006

TOTAL BUDGET AUTHORITY BY FUNCTION AND SUBFUNCTION

(in millions of dollars)

Function and Subfunction	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
270 Energy
271 Energy supply	-116	368	-97	-182	-121
272 Energy conservation	662	640	636	627	635
274 Emergency energy preparedness	160	155	154	152	154
276 Energy information, policy, and regulation	499	492	493	493	500
Total, Energy	1,205	1,655	1,186	1,090	1,168

THE HIDDEN CUTS IN DOMESTIC APPROPRIATIONS,
Examining the Administrations FY `07 Budget,
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
Feb. 9, 2006

Open threaddd …

"Valley of the Wolves – Iraq", Kurtlar Vadisi – Iraq (official  website – Flash req.), is a recent Turkish action thriller.

The highest budgeted Turkish movie so far is a follow up to a successful TV series. The movie depicts the battle of a small team of Turkish special agents against malicious U.S. powers in northern Iraq.

The 2pm show today, in a 700 seats downtown theater, attracted only some 200 people. The evening shows are said to be packed.

About 10% of the visitors were German and 90% Turk/Kurd. A third were female, only some 10 with headscarves. Half of the people were first generation migrants, age 40-60, the other half from the younger generation. The flick was in Turkish language with German subtitles. It is rated age 16+.

In quality the movie can certainly compete with any decent Hollywood flick – great soundtrack, great actors, good camera runs and scenery and lots of flashy special effects. The plot, which I detail below, is dense. Though there is a lot of fighting and blood, the moral message is saddening and can be understood as a call for peace. Unfortunately, there is one part in the plot that degrades this message.

Cont. reading: Kurtlar Vadisi – Iraq

Whittington added that that he has offered to reimburse the vice president for the full cost of the hunting trip, including the wasted birdshot.

What Friends Are For

untitled (detail)
by anna missed

pigment/spraypaint/pyro on wood – 15"x11"
full size (140kb)

Bush’s trump card is that God moves in mysterious ways; just because the orders don’t appear to make sense doesn’t mean they weren’t given. But we could make a legitimate distinction here between "mysterious" and "self-evidently crackers". We cannot, as mortals, say that God definitely, positively did not speak to Bush. But we can infer that either God is mad or Bush is mad. It is more heartening and less heretical to believe the latter; though, of course, God being omnipotent, He did make Bush mad. So maybe they’re both mad …
The burning Bush

Karl Rove has threatened Republican Senators not to get into the way of Bush`s NSA spying program:

[T]he White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

That carrot has worked with some, especially with Senator Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Cont. reading: Carrots and Sticks

Yesterday the German Federal Constitutional Court issued an interesting judgement on basic human rights.

After 9/11 the German Aviation Security Act was changed. The Minister of Defense was granted the authority to order the irforce to shoot down civil air planes (§14.3 LuftSiG (in German)).

This if a plane was assumed to be used against human life and if such action would be the sole instrument to stop a present danger.

Cont. reading: Basic Rights

Power of Persuasion

II. Cheney Bear Says

I. Hypocritical Oath

… couldn’t resist that one.