The United States agreed yesterday to bend the deadline for Iraq to disarm.
U.S. agrees to bend U.N. deadline for Iraq to disarm fully, Baltimore Sun, March 12, 2003
Until now, the US attitude has been that the UN’s help is welcome as long as it does not interfere with its plans and deadlines.
Face the Facts on the Iraq Deadline, FT, April 21, 2004
Bush’s deadline democracy managed to propel the process forward and appears on the verge of creating a new government with legitimacy earned at the ballot box.
In Iraq, Bush Pushed For Deadline Democracy, WaPo, December 11, 2005
Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq — that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state.
RESISTANCE TO DEADLINES FOR IRAQ IS WEAKENING, LAT, October 31, 2006
U.S. forces ended a five-day-old military blockade of Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City section Tuesday, meeting a deadline set by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid tensions between U.S. and Iraqi officials and pressure from the anti-American cleric whose militia controls the sprawling Shiite slum.
…
Precisely at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EST), the deadline set by
Maliki, U.S. armored personnel carriers pulled away from the
roadblocks. Young men in pickup trucks drove through the streets waving
banners of the Mahdi Army, and drivers of other vehicles honked their
horns in celebration.
Maliki Orders Lifting of Checkpoints Around Sadr City, WaPo, October 31, 2006
Billmon:
III. How I’m Feeling at the Moment
II. Out of the Closet
But I have to ask: Which is the greater failing — ignoring the racism that goes on every second of every minute of every hour in this country, or telling a minstrel joke?
And if it’s the former, how many of my critics are really in a position to pass judgment on me?
I. Politically Incorrect
Billmon:
[T]he important lesson (one the Ronald Brownsteins of the world will never, ever mention in print) is what Rove’s 51% strategy says about the America’s future. Because if Turd Blossom is right (and he may well be) then this isn’t really one country any more. It’s a battlefield divided between two bitterly hostile partisan armies, with an indeterminate number of undecided or uncommitted voters — "the civilians" — left stranded out in no man’s land.
[…]
But while Karl may be OK with this, and the pod people of the authoritarian right may be OK with this, and I may be OK with it, I don’t think the indeterminate number of uncommitted voters who are stranded out there between the partisan lines are OK with it. They seem to want something more than a 51% solution, and they don’t seem to understand why they can’t have it.
The 51% Solution
Billmon:
Weldon Influence Peddling Inc. appears to have grown too fast for its own good.
Traditional Family Values
Billmon:
After all, if the computer is going to eat all the data, why bother collecting any?
The Computer Ate It
Billmon:
If it was as easy to win wars as it is to hoodwink the voters, our troubles in Iraq would have been over long ago.
Tell Me Lies
Jerome, who had posted here for a while, is holding up the mirror to the Daily Kos crowd.
Is DailyKos a rightwing website? he asks. I recommend to read it – he is pointing out what’s wrong with them.
And of course Dkos is right wing when you hold a European center-left position like Jerome does.
Having an even more leftwing (European-scale) position, a lot of DKos’ feels like redneck heaven to me.
(update below)
Jana is one of my favorite local street artists. She sings balads/chanson in four languages, with an impressive voice and seemingly in trance.
Today she had selfmade CDs for sale.
Drachenblut (mp3) is sung in bard style and a mixture of modern and medievial German
Living A Sunday (mp3)
my favorite: Gold ("why aren’t you here with me …") (mp3)
(I didn’t compress much, so filesizes are about 4Mb)
bigger pic, another pic
(sorry, only cellphone cam pics)
How do you like her music? I’ll let her know your opinion.
Update:
Today I met Jana for a coffee/tea and did get the CDs for those of you who asked. (And yes Rowan, she is really pretty …)
Here are four more songs by her, though only as teasers – i.e. incomplete. Still, very enjoyable music – give it a try.
Toute En Ronde,
Mis Sueños,
Is It Okay? and something special.
If you want to have a CD by this coming star, let me know.
Billmon:
You could say: To hell with old media, they’re just a bunch of senile dinosaurs anyway, who cares who they pander to? But old media, for better or worse, still set the news agenda, and still dominate the political process. And they’re doing an energetic, if not yet totally successful, job of sucking up new media and sticking them in the same corporate straight jacket. If they decide, as matter of cold capitalist calculation, that one-party Republican rule is the smart way to bet, that could also be come a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Maybe I’m wrong — I hope I am. But if I’m right, then there may come a time when progressives look back and sigh for the good old days when journalistic "objectivity" still encouraged the corporate media to give the truth and conservative propaganda equal weight, instead of simply repeating the latter.
The Enemies of Truth
The above screenshoot, clipped from the current Yahoo news site, is a typical part of the low level propaganda effort against Iran. But it seems to be also part of trend with Associated Press stories where the headline belies the article.
Cont. reading: Misleading AP Headlines
OT 101 – How to post on an open thread – starting now
Billmon:
On the other hand, having to spend several hours listening to Shrub’s annoying verbal mannerisms -[…]- would be pretty excruciating, too.
Table Talk with Bush
