Weird – or not. In any number of editorials on Iran these days, you find the assumption, unfounded in any fact, that Iran is working on nuclear weapons.
Today Mark Bowden in the NYT writes on Playing to the Home Crowd in Iran. Quite a good piece of history on the Iran revolution but in the end he slips this in:

Even many Iranians who oppose the theocracy now favor joining the nuclear club; it adds to national prestige and arguably enhances Iran’s security. In openly pursuing nuclear power and defying world opinion, the old revolutionaries are shoring up their stature at home by appealing to nationalism and to fears of foreign invasion or attack.

And no, he doesn´t meen “nuclear power” as electricity generation. That would not “arguably enhance Iran’s security”.

Posted by: b | May 5 2006 8:29 utc | 4

Some sane writing on Dafur: Jonathan Steele One-sided reporting that is delaying an end to the killing

In the Darfur peace agreement, large areas of territory are recognised by the government as being under the rebels’ control and therefore closed to government troops during a transition period. This is a humiliating recognition of loss of sovereignty. The Janjaweed militias will have to be disarmed before the rebels are. Foreign peacekeepers from the AU will oversee security around the camps for internally displaced people, and government forces will be barred.
Darfur’s marginalisation (which was one of the issues that led to the conflict) will be addressed through extra funding from Sudan’s national budget. Affirmative action will give Darfurians public-service jobs. The rebels will have the right to nominate the governor of one of Darfur’s three states, and the deputy governors of the other two. The rebels will also have a top post in Sudan’s presidential administration in Khartoum.
Why were they reluctant to agree? One reason – rarely reported in the media rush to paint the rebels as heroes – is that they are seriously divided. Splits along ethnic lines have recently widened, even leading to armed clashes. There are reports that the rebels themselves have been using janjaweed-style violence, storming each other’s villages on camels. The rebels are also guilty of blocking aid to the displaced. Jan Pronk, the UN special representative, this week charged them with jeopardising aid to 450,000 vulnerable people through attacks on UN agency vehicles and non-governmental relief agencies.
One-sided international media treatment of the crisis may have emboldened the rebels to increase their demands. In many forgotten conflicts, the TV and commentary spotlights help to sound the alarm and bring pressure for action. In the Darfur case, they could be having a pernicious effect and be delaying the chance of ending the killing.

Posted by: b | May 5 2006 10:17 utc | 6

So Tony Blair has now fired Jack Straw and a few others, because Labour did get bad local election results. He should have fired himself of course, but there is reason to get rid of Straw:

Foreign Office lawyers have formally advised Jack Straw that it would be illegal under international law for Britain to support any US-led military action against Iran.
The advice given to the Foreign Secretary in the last few weeks is thought to have prompted his open criticism last week of Tony Blair’s backing for President George Bush, who has refused to rule out military action against the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Posted by: b | May 5 2006 10:29 utc | 8

We are seeing a push toward a so-called “humanitarian mission” to save Darfur, that there is a region that has been ignored despite the genocide and horrocity.
So facts are very helpful. I found that article at Counterpunch.org to have some weight, if only because it contains the only facts I could find.
According to Wikipedia, “three-quarters the size of Texas, or slightly smaller than France. It is largely an arid plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,000 m (10,100 ft), in the center of the region. The North comprises a sandy desert, the South a bush forest.”
There is a map of Sudan, a large country in Africa, at Google maps — I just chose Maps and typed in “Sudan” — that shows this huge country to be in north east Africa, below Egypt and across a narrow straight from the equally huge Saudi Arabia, and beyond that to the East, across more water, Iraq.
Africa is big. The other countries around Sudan are looking forward to your post, b.

Posted by: jonku | May 5 2006 11:17 utc | 10

Yeah, I’m working the Sudan beat locally here. It is a big scam (sorry Uncle). It just proves that you can fool almost all the people almost all the time. We are back to the Yugoslavian model of humanitarian justification for war, and the expansion of empire, and the newspapers have done their best to make sure that nobody understands anything, or at best gets disinformation. This one will go all the way because they have photogenic George Clooney as frontman for the heist, while he earns his bones for a future run for gov’nor of ole Kentuck’. And you know what that rhymes with!

Posted by: Malooga | May 5 2006 14:03 utc | 12

Cloak of Invisibility as big science.
Mt. St. Helen’s Lava Fin
DIY Power Plant (i.e. microgeneration…sounds good to me)
Ribbet ribbet, ribbet, ribbet…
Tibet’s revenge
greenbeard altruism in lizards

Posted by: fauxreal | May 5 2006 15:12 utc | 14

Tom (the exterminator) DeLay must look like a gelding
I don’t think that is really what you meant. A gelding is quite awesome, he just can not make babies because his testicles have been removed.
the bugman’s meanness is easily explained if he does have a small tool and you have provided reasonable suspicion of just that.

Posted by: dan of steele | May 5 2006 17:13 utc | 16

dan- you’re so right.
I should have said a baby umpaloompa.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 5 2006 18:05 utc | 18

If this isn’t on yr. daily drop by list, you might want to add it. Some good stuff over there usually.
Today, for starters:
A Russian newspaper said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney’s harsh criticism of Moscow’s human rights record signaled the start of a new Cold War.
…
Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Cheney’s speech “looks like a provocation and interference in Russia’s internal affairs in terms of its content, form and place.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed annoyance that Russia had not been invited to the conference of former Soviet republics and allies.
Cheney accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and using its energy reserves as “tools of intimidation or blackmail.” link
Could dickie be not too happy w/Russia-Germany oil deal, or Russia selling SAM’s to Iran…
Then, there’s a bit indicating that if Arafat was poisoned, as doctors said at the time, it wouldn’t be the first time Israel poisoned leaders of the opposition.
JERUSALEM —  Wadi Haddad, a notorious Palestinian militant leader who masterminded several plane hijackings, was poisoned in 1977 with chocolate crafted by Israeli spies from Mossad, a new book reveals.
In Striking Back, written in English, Aharon Klein confirms suspicions that Israel’s intelligence agency killed the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP), whose love for chocolate was well known.
According to Klein, a Palestinian Mossad operative offered Haddad a box of Belgian chocolates that had been spiked with poison.
Haddad died several months later in a rundown hotel in East Germany after doctors were unable to diagnose his disease. (**jj – sound familiar…**)
“Haddad was considered Israel’s number one enemy over the hijackings and other deadly terror attacks across the world,” Klein said.
“He wasn’t liquidated out of vengeance, even though this motive had existed, but out of the need to neutralize his organization and this desired effect had been achieved,” he said.
Klein said that “since the recent publication of his book, none of the information has not been officially denied by the Israel”.

Posted by: jj | May 5 2006 19:04 utc | 20

Onward w/Major Goal of Bu$hCo – Pillaging the xUS Treasury.
Thom Hartmann, the only person on am radio w/anything to say, filled in for Randi Rhodes yesterday so I listened. He was excellent…won’t go in to all of it – how it’s Total Horseshit that imposing tariffs worsened the Depression, etc…
but there was this Nugget – Another reason they want to raise Oil prices is ‘cuz when they go above $55/barrel, Oil Cos. Do Not Have to Pay Royalties for Oil taken from American Lands – ANWR, etc…
A caller made an interesting point. Said that Walter Reuther clearly understand what the Pirates were up to in the 60’s. He gave a speech saying that at any factory that Pirates shipped overseas they should be required to pay the same wages they paid American workers….A few wks. later he wiped out in a airplane crash….hmmmmm….

Posted by: jj | May 5 2006 19:44 utc | 22

Don’t worry, be happy – it’s all over in 20 days

Posted by: gmac | May 5 2006 21:03 utc | 24

Ups someone eat my “Yuk” comment
Yuk – Autopsy Finds Teen at Boot Camp Was Suffocated

A 14-year-old boy kicked and punched by guards at a juvenile boot camp died because the sheriff’s officials suffocated him, a medical examiner said Friday, contradicting a colleague who blamed the death on a usually benign blood disorder.
”Martin Anderson’s death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp,” said Dr. Vernard Adams, who conducted the second autopsy.
Adams said the suffocation was caused by hands blocking the boy’s mouth, as well as the ”forced inhalation of ammonia fumes” that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his upper airway.
Martin Lee Anderson’s body was exhumed after a camp surveillance videotape surfaced showing the guards roughing him up Jan. 5, a day before he died.
…
Anderson had collapsed while doing push-ups, sit-ups, running laps and other exercises that were part of his admission process at the camp. The sheriff’s office said force was used on Anderson because he was uncooperative.
He had been sent to the boot camp for violating probation by trespassing at a school after he and his cousins were charged with stealing their grandmother’s car from a church parking lot.

The NYT says, “the guards roughing him up”, in a piece that reports that in fact “the guards murdering him”.
Yuk.

Posted by: b | May 5 2006 21:10 utc | 26

Thanks, Maxcrat. But he said it was a recently passed law, so is it possible that this too was recently eliminated?

Posted by: jj | May 6 2006 3:58 utc | 28

thank you b , for recommending my first diary , your link was off, here it is again
interestingly, after landing on the recommend list, as soon as someone commented about pnac and their zionist cohorts, it was immediately pulled. within minutes. i’m probably just paranoid, don’t know the workings of kos, but still , i found it odd. haven’t been commenting much lately , just lurking, here at my cyber home.
frankly, i wouldn’t have written the diary if i didn’t feel like screaming from the rooftops about how much i want to stifle this maniacal administration, preaching to the choir. i’ll go back into lurking mode.

Posted by: annie | May 6 2006 5:34 utc | 30

@annie
I have had three diaries pulled from kos in the last few months, one because I bashed the dems two of them (at least from what I gather) because I spoke harsh of the Israel Lobby group. So no you are not “just being paranoid.”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 6 2006 6:06 utc | 32

Upthread I said Blair fired Jack Straw because Straw would not agree to attack Iran.
A Guradian author concures

The key to the demotion of Jack Straw from foreign secretary is Iran. Mr Straw for more than a year, in his favourite outlet the BBC Today programme or at various press conferences, said repeatedly a military strike on Iran was inconceivable.
Politicians always try to avoid boxing themselves in, but Straw did on this issue: if a military strike had become a serious option, he would have been forced to resign.
He was reflecting the reality of British domestic politics. Against the background of the Iraq debacle, Mr Straw knew it would be difficult to win support for the military option in cabinet and that it would create even more upheaval among the membership of the already weakened Labour party.
The problem for Mr Straw is that Tony Blair does not view Iran the same way. He regards the threat posed by Iran as the most serious in the world today, and is even more messianic on the issue than George Bush. That does not mean that a military strike will happen but Mr Blair, like Mr Bush, thinks it is a good idea to keep the option on the table, if only to keep Iran guessing.
…

Posted by: b | May 6 2006 13:20 utc | 34

Breaking News … Bin Laden is Dead

Posted by: DM | May 6 2006 14:14 utc | 36

DM
Notice how it the story was put forth by FOX by an an unnamed source?
Not saying its true or not, but very convienent time to put more clutter news on the media airwaves to obscure the current fiascos.

Posted by: Rick Happ | May 6 2006 14:43 utc | 38

JJ: sorry – been out for the last 12 hours or so. I’m not sure exactly what Hartmann meant about that oil and gas royalty relief thing, but I do know that the original deepwater royalty relief put in place during the Clinton Administration sort of sunsetted a couple of years ago – it went from being mandatory for certain leases when prices were below the trigger price to being something that could be offered when it seemed appropriate but was not required. Then I think the Energy bill passed by Congress last summer reinstated the mandatory aspect of it. That may be what he was getting at.
By the way, does anyone know how exactly the Energy bill actually has done or will do anything useful for us?

Posted by: Maxcrat | May 6 2006 15:36 utc | 40

10 U.S. Soldiers Are Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for Friday’s crash when he was contacted by telephone, saying Taliban fighters had shot down the helicopter, a Chinook transport. “Whenever we shoot them down, they announce it as a technical problem,” he said of the coalition forces. “This is their propaganda.” But Lieutenant Lawrence said Saturday that so far there was no indication of hostile fire. People on the ground at a landing zone near where the helicopter crashed as well as people aboard other aircraft in the air at the time of the crash did not see any signs of fire, she said.

Posted by: annie | May 6 2006 17:05 utc | 42

Is this what President Eisenhower warned about? Just asking.
http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=255243&&
Senator Clinton Announces Millions Of Dollars For Defense Projects To Benefit New York

Posted by: Rick Happ | May 6 2006 17:44 utc | 44

Wow – OpEd in Wapo by one Markos Moulitsas, i.e. Kos: Hillary Clinton: Too Much of a Clinton Democrat?

Unfortunately, however, the New York senator is part of a failed Democratic Party establishment — led by her husband — that enabled the George W. Bush presidency and the Republican majorities, and all the havoc they have wreaked at home and abroad.

Posted by: b | May 6 2006 21:30 utc | 46

Hillary is part of the club, plays the game well, and is bringing home the bacon as I noted in my last post.
I personally can’t stand her and have never voted for a Clinton or a Bush and most likely never will. Hopefully people power will be more important this time than it was for Dean last time.
Lots of slimy tricks are played by both parties – hard to stay in the pregame shows.

Posted by: Rick Happ | May 7 2006 0:57 utc | 48

uncle, re the kennedy/ cuba invasion. the movie loose change, references operation northwood… fairly well covered w/400g results.
same thing?

Posted by: annie | May 7 2006 3:10 utc | 50

@b
You either didn’t read Markos’ article very carefully, or you don’t understand US politics. All he is saying is, “Clinton is not paying enough attention to my organization, therefore I won’t support her.” The candidates he recommends, Feingold and Warner, are both pro-war and vehemently pro-AIPAC/pro-Israel, as was Dean.
Indeed, Dean, who Markos lauds and loves, because Dean created Markos, as much as Markos created Dean, was himself a chimera. The whole Dean candidacy was based on myth and misdirection. He is ardently pro-Israel, but that issue wasn’t discussed in the managed atmosphere of a political campaign. Neither was the fact that Dean balanced Vermont’s budget by a poorly designed energy sell-off. The resulting privatization increased Green-Stater’s utility bills by 40% or more (before the Bush increases in the cost of energy). In other words, a mini-California worth of damage for the poor. The left wing of Vermont never liked Dean; he was a centrist compromise. And Markos accuses Clinton of being paranoid. My brother was covering Dean and his energy shenanigans for the Wall St. Journal at the time and wrote one single sentence about Dean that wasn’t completely pro-business rah-rah, and Dean reacted in a manner more akin to a Mafia don than a politician (I prefer to not air the details of that little event publicly).
Again for those who find themselves “lost on Kos,” or lost on the “Moon,” neither candidate Kos recommends stands for even a most minimalistic left agenda: Rolling back all of Bush’s changes including the “unitary executive”, getting the money out of politics and greater public involvement, greater equality, greater openess in government, progressive taxation, single payer healthcare, greater social services, opposing imperialistic and illegal “preventative” wars, and opposing the neo-liberal consensus.
All of which begs the question, “What difference to a worker and his family, including his draft age kid, does it make whether Clinton or Warner gets the nomination?
It’s true that we have seen a dramatic right turn in US politics in the sixty years since socialist Henry Wallace seemed destined to be a Presidential candidate, and in the 25 years since Reagan accelerated the rush to the extremist right. But is this any reason to get excited about the opportunity Kos provides us to become a “netroots” supporter of Warner?
Kos is correct in accentuating the importance of the huge grass-roots rebellion against establishment candidates. But such a rebellion is only as good as those rebels are educated and committed to an agenda of change.
To encourage his supporters to rebel against an “insider” candidate, a move Markos puts forth as critical, conveniently forgetting — and allowing his followers to forget — that a mere six years ago Bush gained the Presidency running as an outsider, is meaningless if those supporters don’t insist upon a real and specific agenda of change. Otherwise, all we are seeing is a politics of style, and various internecine battles for personal power within an elitist hierarchy.
It is clear that the centers of US power would never allow a real reformist to even run for President. It is also clear that, with the current rush to full-blown facism demonstrably prefered by the elite as a desperate measure to maintain control in very uncertain times, even a Nader as President would have little ability beyond slowing the inexorable rightward slide which the heavily resisted dissolution of empire impels upon the system.
As I stated above, a reformist movement is only as good as the reformist agenda it is based upon. While there is some mileage to be gotten from the inner pages — that is, the diaries — of Kos, the front page and comments lead me to the conclusion that Markos, and his site, is of greater benefit to the Democratic party, then it is a center of even minimal leftist change.
Your money quote say it all:

“Unfortunately, however, the New York senator is part of a failed Democratic Party establishment — led by her husband — that enabled the George W. Bush presidency and the Republican majorities, and all the havoc they have wreaked at home and abroad.”

How would any of the candidates Markos mentions, or any other serious Democratic candidate be any different? Especially if they are forced to serve with the same traitorious Democratic congress which enabled the Bush agenda, and which the tender “netroots” pages of Kos so ardently, and persistently, support.
Markos is engaging in what might be termed, “non-specific indignation.” It sounds great when you stand against something, but it offers little direction or hope that one may ever successfully stand for something.
Marcos has shown that he has mastered the use of political speech. Can we show that we have mastered the use of political analysis — which consists of being able to decode vapid political speech, and its missing promises?

Posted by: Malooga | May 7 2006 4:24 utc | 52

@b
Don’ much matter if she listens to de base or not, she be big money’s pocket. If you think they got somthin’ on Goss, jus’ you ‘magine what dey got on sweet li’l Hillary, dere.
Dat was way back befo’ bruder Russ decided to run wid de big boys. Heard an hour ob him wid Charlie Rose a while back. Lemme tell you, dat enlighten me big time! (Sorry, de man Charlie no let any body get dere dirty hands on he transcripts.)

Posted by: Malooga | May 7 2006 6:25 utc | 54

Antiwar Protests in Athens Turn Violent

About 30,000 people marched in an anti-globalization and antiwar demonstration in Athens that included attacks on banks, shops and police vehicles.
Police said groups of hooded anarchists torched at least four banks, smashed shop windows and threw gasoline bombs at police buses outside the capital’s police headquarters before running off down side streets.
Officers used tear gas to disperse a small group of anarchists near the U.S. Embassy.

Posted by: b | May 7 2006 7:53 utc | 56

This study about “virginity pledges” seems suspect to me. Breaking promises and having illicit sex…? Are you sure the control group wasn’t a chapter of the Young Republicans?

Posted by: Monolycus | May 7 2006 8:03 utc | 58

“Weapons of Mass Deception”
A U.S. ‘Propaganda’ Program, al-Zarqawi, and ‘The New York Times’
Will people pleasezzzzzzzzzz stop using the word propaganda and embrace propagenda.
It’s not so much the control of what we think, but the control of what we think about.~Brian Eno

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 8 2006 4:42 utc | 60

Uncle, BBC 6music has Brian Eno interviewed by Tom Robinson (Tom Robinson Band), now a presenter on this 2-year-old Internet and Digital Sattelite Broadcast channel. The station is bbc.co.uk/6music.
The Eno interviews are a three-part series, about an hour of programming each, well-padded with songs.
BBC replays the Brian Eno interview for the week after it airs. So we’ve missed part one but part two is available until Wednesday at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/6music_aod.shtml?6music/6m_eno2
on replay and then part three will air and be available as well.
I’ve enjoyed it, Eno is very low-key but he discusses in episode two his art installations and their popularity. And his Oblique Strategies cards, some nice anecdotes and his philosophy.
As for the art installations, he says that people just come in and absorb the ambient music, video and installation itself and have to be asked to leave so someone else can have at try — reminds me of fledging virtual reality exihibits I saw in the early 90s.
I am a big fan having seen two of his video exhibits, not to mention he produced the music of James, David Bowie and some others we’ve heard of like Talking Heads (anagram: King’s Lead Hat) and U2.
Thought you might be interested.
Oh, and a shout-out to whoever mentioned Buckminster Fuller recently.
I saw a book of his ideas for sale once a long time ago. I coveted the book but it was over one hundred dollars and the sum was unimaginable.
Maybe we can find out more about Bucky Fuller, inventor of many things including the geodesic dome.
Another original thinker in the same mold as Eno and Jane Jacobs.

Posted by: jonku | May 8 2006 7:56 utc | 62