Iran vote “decisive defeat” for president: reformers

Iran’s biggest reformist party said on Monday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had suffered a “decisive defeat” in nationwide elections last week due to his government’s “authoritarian and inefficient methods.”
…
Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham preferred to highlight the turnout of about 60 percent, well above levels for equivalent elections in recent years.
“The government does not work in the interest of any particular political group,” he told a weekly news conference. “It is not important for us who is the winner in the elections.”
Early vote tallies for the crucial Tehran City Council race gave Ahmadinejad supporters up to four of the 15 seats. Among those poised to be elected was a sister of the president.
The rest of the council seats were shared among moderate conservative backers of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and reformists, including at least three former cabinet ministers.

Posted by: b | Dec 18 2006 14:33 utc | 4

If a country stops complying with the NPT, does it mean it’s ok to nuke them and there won’t be any UN resolution or war crime suits? The next time countries gather to sign that kind of treaties, they should make sure to include such provisions in them – basically making fair game anyone rogue or devious enough not to sign the treaty.
Iran moving to Euros, well, not a surprise. They just seem to want to piss off Bush and the neo-cons and provoke them to hit first – them or the Israelis. Could tie in with the recent rumors (apparently quite fake or at least not that close to reality) of China dumping US dollar for Euros and metal. So far, it looks like junk news, but it could also be a fair warning to W that messing with Iran would have direct economic consequences.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Dec 18 2006 16:10 utc | 6

@Bea – they are not saying that they will sell oil only in Euros (would not make that much difference if only they would do so), but only that they will calculate and do general foreign business based on Euros. Many other countries do too, especially the Europeans :-).
For future oil prices the general tendency in the moment, not only in Iraq, but in the far east seems to be to go to some basket of currencies.
The Chinese will pull away from a (mostly) fixed yuan/dollar base and adopt a Yuan/basket rate with the basket holding a mix of dollars/euros/yen. Such a basket, which then could also be adopted as a general “exchange” rate for commodities by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, would definitly be welcome by Russia, India and its other members one of which will in future be Iran.
With half the people of the world behind such a pricing scheme, the dollar would lose influence (and value). Iran could thereby move away from the dollar/barrel oilprice without much public furor.
Lets just hope the Chinese have talked to them and that they stay smart.

Posted by: b | Dec 18 2006 16:21 utc | 8

This is quite a read:
Ynet-news interviews neocon Meyrav Wurmser, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Middle East Policy and wife of David Wurmser, Cheney’s Middle East pointman. M Wurmser is Israeli. : Neocons: We expected Israel to attack Syria
some excerpts:

Q: What are you trying to achieve?
“We believe in a strong and active American foreign policy. America is a good force in the world, a nation that believes in freedom. We believe in exporting American ideas of freedom and democracy, to promote greater stability.”
Q: Did you, in practice, bring about the war in Iraq?
“We expressed ideas, but the policy in Iraq was taken out of neocon hands very quickly. …”
Q: Your people held senior positions in the Pentagon. Didn’t Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith implement your theories?
“The final decisions were no in their hands. In the Pentagon, the decisions were in the hands of the military, and the political leadership had a lot of clashes with the military leadership.”
Q: Did the military leadership ask for more soldiers in Iraq?
“Rumsfeld prevented that. He was a failure. The State Department opposed the neocons’ stances. Also John Bolton, who is also part of the family, and was no. 4 at the State Department under Colin Powell, was incapable of passing decisions…
“Powell curbed our ideas and they did not pass. There was a lot of frustration over the years in the administration because we didn’t feel we were succeeding.
“Now Bolton left (the UN – Y.B.) and there are others who are about to leave. This administration is in its twilight days. Everyone is now looking for work, looking to make money… We all feel beaten after the past five years… We miss the peace and quiet and writing books…
“When you enter the administration you have to keep your mouth shut. Now many will resume their writing… Now, from the outside, they will be able to convey all the criticism they kept inside.”
…
Q: In the meantime you left the US inside Iraq?
“We did not bring the US into Iraq in such a way. Our biggest war which we lost was the idea that before entering Iraq we must train an exile Iraqi government and an Iraqi military force, and hand over the rule to them immediately after the occupation and leave Iraq. That was our idea and it was not accepted.”
…
Q: Why didn’t you attack Syria?
Many of Wurmser’s friends believe the disaster is not only in Iraq, but in the entire region. They are also very frustrated over the way in which Israel embarked on the war against Hizbullah this summer, and on the way it returned from it.
“Hizbullah defeated Israel in the war. This is the first war Israel lost,” Dr. Wurmser declares.
Q: Is this a popular stance in the administration, that Israel lost the war?
“Yes, there is no doubt. It’s not something one can argue about it. There is a lot of anger at Israel.”
Q: What caused the anger?
“I know this will annoy many of your readers… But the anger is over the fact that Israel did not fight against the Syrians. Instead of Israel fighting against Hizbullah, many parts of the American administration believe that Israel should have fought against the real enemy, which is Syria and not Hizbullah.”
Q: Did the administration expect Israel to attack Syria?
“They hoped Israel would do it. … “The neocons are responsible for the fact that Israel got a lot of time and space… They believed that Israel should be allowed to win.
“The final outcome is that Israel did not do it. It fought the wrong war and lost. Instead of a strategic war that would serve Israel’s objectives, as well as the US objectives in Iraq. If Syria had been defeated, the rebellion in Iraq would have ended.”
Wurmser says that what most frustrates her is hearing people close to decision makers in Israel asking her if the US would have let Israel attack Syria.
“No one would have stopped you. It was an American interest. They would have applauded you. Think why you received so much time and space to operate. Rice was in the region and Israel embarrassed her with Qana, and still Israel got more time. Why aren’t they reading the map correctly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?”

I wonder if some people in Lebanon, who have lost brothers, sisters, children because Israel was “given time” might read that interview and how M. Wurmers claims “The neocons are responsible for the fact that Israel got a lot of time and space.”
What could be their thought about this? What would you think … and feel an urge to do?

Posted by: b | Dec 18 2006 17:13 utc | 10

“we must train an exile Iraqi government and an Iraqi military force”
This idea of training is repeated ad nauseam. Train them to what? Salivate when the IMF/WTO rings a bell?
For any Canadians aboot the joint:
RCMP spied on Tommy Douglas for 30+ years

Douglas, a trailblazing socialist committed to social reform, drew the interest of RCMP security officers through his longstanding links with left-wing causes, the burgeoning peace movement and assorted Communist party members.
In the late 1970s, as the veteran politician neared retirement, the Mounties recommended keeping his file open based on the notion “there is much we do not know about Douglas.”

A buddy of mine is related by marriage to a now deceased former biggie in the communist party of canada in the ’30s. The man was imprisoned for his thoughts and given the choice of a family member visiting monthly or writing letters any time. He chose the latter and all was well (as could be expected in the prison system of the dirty thirties). There was even friendly rapport with the guards.
Until the day a guard came fuming into this poor man’s cell and threw his latest letter to his brother in his face with a stream of invective about commies and how he (the prisoner) shouldn’t be criticising such a fine leader.
He and his brother were discussing the dangers of the rise of Hilter…

Posted by: gmac | Dec 18 2006 18:52 utc | 12

Goff’s brief on the course of the Iraqi occupation has probably already been posted here at some time.
my apologies. I’ve not been able to keep up with all the news posted here over the last few (and more) months. however, for others like me who may have missed this one…
While the pundits continually refer to Iraq’s “sectarian conflict” as a Sunni-Shia division, the most important divisions from the point of view of the US occupation forces and the US foreign policy establishment are inter-Shia. In November 2006, the decision was made to withdraw Marines from the highly nationalist and Sunni-majority Al Anbar Province, to reinforce Baghdad. What is seldom mentioned is what precisely they were reinforcing, and how.
Once we understand that one faction, led by one leader, who has consistently called for Iraqi national unity and the expulsion of the US military and US control over the development of Iraq’s post-occupation foreign affairs orientation… and that this same leader is harboring a militia that exceeds the size of the American occupation itself within the radius of Baghdad and environs… within a stone’s throw of the Green Zone… the answer to the question becomes blazingly clear.
Neither Hakim nor Maliki can afford to appear too cozy with the American occupation or the Bush regime, without risking wide scale abandonment by their respective popular bases. Stating that the American occupation is “unpopular” might be the understatement of the year. At the same time, neither Hakim nor Maliki has the power to control Baghdad, the symbolism and practical political value of which is inestimable, without the American occupation (They are, in fact, unable to do it with the occupation’s assistance.). SCIRI has its main offices located in Iraqi Kurdistan (in the north), with its popular base in the south along the Iranian border. Ayatollah al Hakim, then, does not even have a safe haven for his militias co-located with his zone of greatest geographic influence. The only thing they are co-located with are the American armed forces.
And a “surge” or “double down” is going to accomplish what?
It really irks me that people like Reid say, okay, go ahead and have your surge, knowing it will discredit McCain (and lots of others) …yet, what of those lives that will be lost because of this? who in his or her right mind would participate in such a folly –or allow their child to be taken for such a folly?

Posted by: fauxreal | Dec 18 2006 19:30 utc | 14

fauxreal :
Talking Surge

‘Everyone in town is talking “surge” now’, a Pentagon adviser explained to NPR listeners the other day… ‘It probably won’t work, but it’s worth a try.’

My sentiments exactly when I read the above. For the American political class, Republicrat or Demoplican, it’s all about themselves and the “face” they may save or will lose when their adventure in Iraq comes to a close.
Hey, let’s burn a few more lives… it might work. Keep ’em off our backs ’til after Xmas.
There must be an Anglo-Americn War Crime Tribunal.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 19 2006 4:03 utc | 16

China plays its own energy game

An influential Chinese scholar and strategic expert who is an adviser to the Chinese Communist Party and the Foreign Ministry took the audience by surprise at an international conference on energy security in New Delhi last week by cautioning the world community against condemning the United States for the anarchic conditions in Iraq.
He said what was needed was that all responsible countries cooperate with the US in stabilizing the Iraq situation rather than indulging in vacuous rhetoric. Even as he spoke, the Chinese Foreign Ministry was hosting high-level Israeli and Palestinian delegates for a “Track II” seminar in Beijing on how to “reignite the peace process” in the troubled Middle East.
The common thread running through all these delicate diplomatic maneuverings is China’s manifest keenness to give primacy to peace and stability in the Middle East’s political order, no matter the moral injustice of the status quo or the ideology of national liberation. In essence, it boils down to China’s energy-security concerns.
…
Moscow announced last week that its strategic missile forces were set to start re-equipping the ICBMs with multiple re-entry vehicles. While on a visit to the Ivanovo region on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin called the deployment a “significant step forward in improving our defense capabilities”.
“Maintaining a strategic balance will mean that our strategic deterrent forces should be able to guarantee the neutralization of any potential aggressor, no matter what modern weapon systems he possesses,” Putin said.
The deployment of the state-of-the-art mobile Topol-M ballistic missile, with a liftoff weight of 47.2 tonnes, a range of more than 10,000 kilometers and capability of carrying a 1,200-kilogram warhead, which is immune to electromagnetic impulses and is credited with the ability to breach any existing anti-ballistic-missile shield, has been viewed by at least one prominent Russian defense commentator as “largely motivated by tougher competition between the great powers for unimpeded access to raw materials”, including energy resources.
…
However, it will be long remembered as the last act on the world stage of the outgoing chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, to have torn asunder the veil of innuendos. He made it clear that when it comes to the creation of wealth, access to cheap energy sources is vital, and for securing unimpeded access, all means are fair – including military means.
As the world moves further away from ideological divides, and if it becomes truly possible to analyze the origins of the Cold War, only then may we aspire to know to what extent the so-called Iron Curtain was a deliberate polemical digression, or how central oil was to the orchestration of East-West tensions.

From Richard Lugar’s NATO speech :
Energy and NATO

We all hope that the economics of supply and pricing surrounding energy transactions will be rational and transparent. We hope that nations with abundant oil and natural gas will reliably supply these resources in normal market transactions to those who need them. We hope that pipelines, sea lanes, and other means of transmission will be safe. We hope that energy cartels will not be formed to limit available supplies and manipulate markets. We hope that energy rich nations will not exclude or confiscate productive foreign energy investments in the name of nationalism. And we hope that vast energy wealth will not be a source of corruption within nations that desperately ask their governments to develop and deliver the benefits of this wealth broadly to society.
Unfortunately, our experiences provide little reason to be confident that market rationality will be the governing force behind energy policy and transactions. The majority of oil and natural gas supplies and reserves in the world are not controlled by efficient, privately owned companies. Geology and politics have created oil and natural gas superpowers that nearly monopolize the world’s oil supply. According to PFC Energy, foreign governments control up to 79 percent of the world’s oil reserves through their national oil companies. These governments set prices through their investment and production decisions, and they have wide latitude to shut off the taps for political reasons.
The vast majority of these oil assets are afflicted by at least one of three problems: lack of investment, political manipulation, or the threat of instability and terrorism…
Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have openly declared their intent to attack oil facilities to inflict pain on Western economies. We should also recognize that NATO members are transferring hundreds of billions of dollars each year to some of the least accountable, autocratic regimes in the world. The revenues flowing to authoritarian regimes often increase corruption in those countries and allow them to insulate themselves from international pressure and the democratic aspirations of their own peoples. As large industrializing nations such as China and India seek new energy supplies, oil and natural gas may not be abundant and accessible enough to support continued economic growth in both the industrialized West and in large rapidly growing economies. In these conditions, energy supplies will become an even stronger magnet for conflict.
We are used to thinking in terms of conventional warfare between nations, but energy could become the weapon of choice for those who possess it. It may seem to be a less lethal weapon than military force, but a natural gas shutdown to a European country in the middle of winter could cause death and economic loss on the scale of a military attack. Moreover, in such circumstances, nations would become desperate, increasing the chances of armed conflict and terrorism. The potential use of energy as a weapon requires NATO to review what Alliance obligations would be in such cases.
NATO must determine what steps it is willing to take if Poland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia or another member state is threatened as Ukraine was. Because an attack using energy as a weapon can devastate a nation’s economy and yield hundreds or even thousands of casualties, the Alliance must avow that defending against such attacks is an Article Five commitment.
Article Five of the NATO Charter identifies an attack on one member as an attack on all… We should recognize that there is little ultimate difference between a member being forced to submit to foreign coercion because of an energy cutoff and a member facing a military blockade or other military demonstration on its borders.
I understand that adopting energy security as a mission is a major advancement from NATO’s origins. But it represents an historic opportunity to change the circumstances of geopolitics to the benefit of all members. At this summit, we should engage in a broad, strategic debate on how we can ensure progress in Afghanistan, strengthen NATO through new members, and face the energy security threats of the 21st century together.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 19 2006 4:25 utc | 18

Mono #15 — have you ever visited Chicago?
The “second city” to New York has a beautiful downtown core and like NYC has its own blocks of shattered brick piles, the remnants of buildings, on the South Side. Just like the South Bronx.
But unlike New York you don’t see street people with their shopping carts or sitting on the Wall Street sidewalks of Broadway passing a covert bottle of wine.
Instead Chicago’s downtown is a pristine haven of wide avenues, lovely bridges and the occasional licensed street vendor on the pedestrian-friendly sidewalk.
On a summer trip I ventured out from my Hyatt to a corporate sponsored event in the huge convention center. To do so I followed the provided map which led me down one flight of stairs from the urban pastoral above to the gritty roads below the elevated metropolis. There I found buses and taxicabs as well as the litter that was absent from the main streets which formed the roof above this Morlock’s cavern.
Further on my journey I met a contingent of homeless, one guy explained that they stayed on the periphery due to some anti-vagrant law.
So Chicago had simply outlawed homelessness and banned it to the outskirts.
Personally I like the New York model of all cultures cheek by jowl. Tinted window limos still have to deposit their passengers on the street, and the street is alive.
Chicago is a bit more like Disneyland (on a visit my friend was emphatically urged to quit juggling, a hobby that he does everywhere, by plain-clothed young Disney staff) than a city should be. Still it seems a very liveable city.
As for Las Vegas removing their lower-income dwellers I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.
Check out Vancouver circa 1986 when the city was cleansed of artists and musicians in low-rent but potentially valuable apartments. Amazingly the arts community has recovered but I will never be the same.

Posted by: jonku | Dec 19 2006 9:47 utc | 20

John Francis Lee, I hope your current cynicism is just a fad! All joking aside thanks for your scholarship. Although I don’t agree with all of your opinions you do well to support your arguments with substantial links to other resources.
Like the rest of this whole crew I appreciate the work involved — I’m still waiting for the brainwave that brings it all together, then I will post the brainwave. I should say I’m waiting for that braincell to bring it all together — the poor thing is tired and fires all too seldom these days.
Hi to all of you, hope you have electricity and no trees through your houses etc., not to mention the basics such as not being rounded up in the middle of the night. I hate it when that happens.

Posted by: jonku | Dec 19 2006 9:59 utc | 22

Neat new error message… apparently the “language” I used does not match the “preferred language by this user”. Let’s hear it for algorithms and false positives.

Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 19 2006 10:28 utc | 24

So, with B’s “Purpose of life” post, you thought freshmen were fucked up. Well, looks like mankind is quite screwed and intends to fuck up kids as well.
Found this link in Eurotrib. Being a celeb, having good looks and being rich being top priorities of English kids?
Luckily they still think being drunk and killing isn’t cool.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Dec 19 2006 10:58 utc | 26

the first segment ofriverbend’s bbc radio show is up and running. it’s good, very

Posted by: annie | Dec 19 2006 11:45 utc | 28

Further, that was the first time I noticed what it meant to be young gifted and black.
Oops. I mean english-speaking, european-looking and carrying valid ID. And cash.
Horrible awakening that took me years to process, thus I am here now.
In Toronto I first heard of the protocol of taking offenders out to the beaches and putting a hurting on them. In the words of Russell Peters, a second-generation South Asian comedian (aka East Indian, meaning he grew up here with immigrant parents), “Somebody gonna get hurt real bad.”
He’s funny on inter-cultural issues.

Posted by: jonku | Dec 19 2006 12:30 utc | 30

PsyOps can be done by both sides: Iraqi TV station plays up U.S. losses

The renegade, pro-insurgent Al Zawraa channel, with a 24-hour diet of propaganda against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government, has become something of a sensation throughout the country. It has drawn condemnation from U.S. officials, Iraqi politicians and Friday prayer leaders.
Most hours of the day it plays footage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq being shot and blown up in insurgent attacks, often with religious chants or Saddam Hussein-era nationalist anthems in the background. There are segments warning Iraq’s Sunni Arabs to be wary of Shiite Muslims, and occasional English-language commentary and subtitles clearly meant to demoralize U.S. troops.
“Your new enlisting qualifications are kind of comical,” an announcer says in slightly accented American English, over an image of a U.S. soldier in a field hospital, a bandage on his newly amputated arm. “I mean, what are you doing? Thirty-nine years old? That’s the new age of recruiting? Are you recruiting nannies? I guess if we are patient, we might witness crippled people enlisting for the Marines.”
…
Al Zawraa started out several months ago as an aboveground hard-line Sunni channel, but it was shut down by the Iraqi government Nov. 5, the day Hussein received the death penalty. Iraqi police raided the station’s headquarters after broadcasts criticized the verdict.
…
Iraqi government efforts to track down the renegade station have come to naught. No one’s quite sure where it broadcasts from or even who is behind it. Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie and a senior U.S. military official said it was broadcasting from somewhere near the Kurdish city of Irbil at one point and recently signed a distribution deal with the Egyptian satellite company NileSat.

Posted by: b | Dec 19 2006 14:27 utc | 32

Cherry Beach Express by Pukka Orchestra
I’ve got a bone to pick with you
not so friendly boys in blue
you come out of the station
and into the street
and everybody beats
a hasty retreat
Well it was late one Friday
I’m a little bit wrecked
you’re on your way to serve and protect
you buzz out of a cruiser
like bees from a hive
and ask me if I want to
go for a drive
go for a drive?
That’s why I’m riding on
the Cherry Beach Express
my ribs are broken
and my face is in a mess
and I made all my statements
under duress
52 Division
handcuffed to a chair
I’m joining the lineup
to fall down the stairs
I tell you I’m innocent
I try to explain
we’re just making sure
you don’t do it again
do what again?
That’s why you’re riding on
the Cherry Beach Express
your ribs are broken
and your face is in a mess
and we strongly suggest you confess!
I confess I’m mystified
by the way you’re occupied
I confess I’m horrified
why are you so terrified?
does the pain get any less
if I confess

Posted by: gmac | Dec 19 2006 15:23 utc | 34

The Christian Science Monitor (from the December 19, 2006 edition)
Gators beware: Pythons moving into Everglades
A significant population has taken up residence in the national park, perhaps released there by overwhelmed pet owners.
By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
DAVIE, FLA.
A 20-inch Burmese python looks anything but menacing curled up peacefully in the corner of a pet store display case. In fact, for a snake, it’s kinda cute.
That’s the problem.
Each year a significant number of Burmese pythons – like the snake on sale in a pet store here – are taken home by people who never quite understand the presale warning.”
…and what happens with all the Republicans being released into the wild after November? When dogs, cats, and unattended children start disappearing I guess we’ll just blame it on the Pythons.

Posted by: Austin Cooper | Dec 19 2006 15:44 utc | 36

US to warn Iran with naval buildup in Gulf- CBS

The Pentagon is planning a major buildup of U.S. naval forces in and around the Gulf as a warning to Iran, CBS News reported on Monday.
A senior Defense Department official told Reuters the report was “premature” and appeared to be drawing “conclusions from assumptions.” The official did not know of plans for a major change in naval deployment.
Another Defense Department official called the report “speculative” and a Pentagon spokeswomen declined to comment.
Citing unidentified military officers, CBS said the plan called for the deployment of a second U.S. aircraft carrier to join the one already in the region.
The network said the buildup, which would begin in January, wad not aimed at an attack on Iran but to discourage what U.S. officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Tehran.
The report said Iranian naval exercises in the Gulf, its support for Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Iran’s nuclear program were causes for concern among U.S. officials.

Posted by: b | Dec 19 2006 17:04 utc | 38

“We retain the rhetoric of liberal democracy, but in concrete terms this supposed democracy gets enacted as the commodity culture, in which freedom of choice really means Coke versus Pepsi. As b, has just posted it looks like the ‘tapeworm’is on the move:
Cheney’s Revenge

“This is the largest massing of military power in the region, and it is gathering for a reason.”

The cabal will find a way to attack Iran…they have to. Notice that link I posted above about how Haliburton is being cut out of the action even via one of it’s proxy companies?
For that and for many other reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the 9/11 truthers are catching up with all the lies…there has to be another catastrophic event, and soon.
This one will be ‘the enchilada’ as the Nixonion White House staffers used to say. This one will be the one where the cabal stares down the pathetic leftist opposition and merely says… We have star wars, we have HAARP, we have The Bomb we have numerous other biowarfare weapons…we have the entire world surrounded and we’re taking over.
We’re setting up a NWO and the first thing that goes is the Internet. At least as it is now known and loved….the new Internet will be just a high speed version of the boring and dried up Zionist MSM that nobody pays any attention to anymore. Like it or lump it.
Oh, and by the way, the banks have taken all your money and locked it up and will be doling it out to you in nickles and dimes…..so don’t make any expensive plans.
Yes, it will be a Brave New World…and it will be starting shortly in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Democratic majority in Congress almost guarantees that the Cabal must launch a “DOS” (Denial-of-Service) attack on Democrats by melting-down the economy, launching a new war, and creating as many crises as possible to keep (nosey, investigating) Dems busy.
It’s all part of The Long Coup which began you-know-when. By the time U.S. military are on U.S. streets, the “military” part of The Long Coup will be merely a technical formality.
Hell, it’s already begun…
US Army Might Break Goodyear Strike
By Bernard Simon
The Financial Times

The US Army is considering measures to force striking workers back to their jobs at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Kansas in the face of a looming shortage of tires for Humvee trucks and other military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan. A strike involving 17,000 members of the United Steelworkers union has crippled 16 Goodyear plants in the US and Canada since October 5.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 19 2006 18:07 utc | 40

“anyone else” in my #41
Sorry

Posted by: Bea | Dec 19 2006 18:28 utc | 42

it’s not just you bea. i haven’t been too chatty lately guys, but i’m glued to all your links and all the implications. we’re in this together.

Posted by: annie | Dec 19 2006 18:49 utc | 44

bea
yr not such a slouch yrself in the linking department
our linktank

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 19 2006 20:10 utc | 46

Palestinian girl, 14, killed by IDF fire near West Bank fence

Israel Defense Forces troops on Tuesday opened fire on two teenaged Palestinian girls approaching the separation fence near the West Bank town of Tul Karm, killing one and wounding the other.
The slain girl was identified as 14-year-old Da’ah Abed al-Kadr, and her wounded friend was named as 12-year-old Rasha Shalbi.
IDF sources said troops opened fire when they noticed a suspicious figure approaching the fence, some 100 meters away. The commanding officer at the scene fired a shot into the air, and a soldier opened fire on the approaching figure.

Look at that cute “approching figure” …

Posted by: b | Dec 19 2006 20:39 utc | 48

More from Uncle’s the war at home…The Highwaymen

Why you could soon be paying Wall Street investors, Australian bankers, and Spanish builders for the privilege of driving on American roads.

American tax payers have payed for the construction of these roads, and now get to pay infinitely more to drive them for the states’ “privilege” to privatize them for huge fees.
And of course, the increased costs of transporting goods will be dumped again on (guess who?) the same taxpayers who paid for the roads to begin with!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 19 2006 21:05 utc | 50

The Poet & the Tyrant: Victor Jara’s Music and the Brutal Legacy of Pinochet

Posted by: b real | Dec 20 2006 1:09 utc | 52

big bro-type

Posted by: b real | Dec 20 2006 1:13 utc | 54

b real, every time you click a link and your browser requests a web page, certain information including the type and version of your browser, type and version of your operating system, and your IP address is sent to the web server.
The IP address tells the server where to send the page to and can also be used to look up your ISP and general geographic location. That’s how the Sitemeter can show where the current site users are in the world.
The “captcha” (that’s what it is called) that asks you to type in the letters in the picture is supposed to prevent automated systems (other computers) from linking to site after site and posting blog spam.
The automated computers that do spam are often doing so without the knowledge of their owners, they have been tricked into running malicious software installed to create a network of “spambots.”
Anyway, computers don’t do visual character recognition very well so the captcha makes sure that it is a human being trying to post. It is a part of the blog software and probably can’t find out anything that the server/blog site doesn’t already know, except maybe that you have the patience to figure it out!
Incidentally once you know someone’s IP address you can ask your computer to do a “trace route” which reports on the network nodes that lead from your computer to theirs. This information can often lead to discovery of the owner of the corporate network (if the user is in a company) or the ISP account number of the user.

Posted by: jonku | Dec 20 2006 1:31 utc | 56

An excellent interview with Noam Chomski at DemocracyNow!
From Bolivia to Baghdad
On Palestine:

The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict. And then goes on to say that the US must encourage discussions and so on, but restricting and allowing Palestinians to participate, but only those who accept Israel’s right to exist. OK, those are the only Palestinians who can participate. What about Israelis who accept Palestine’s right to exist? Well, no point in mentioning them, because there probably aren’t any.

On Neoliberalism :

And that goes way back in history. You go back to the 17th century, the commercial and industrial centers of the world were China and India. Life expectancy in Japan was greater than in Europe. Europe was kind of like a barbarian outpost, but it had advantages, mainly in savagery, conquered the world, imposed something like the neoliberal rules on the conquered regions, and itself, very high protectionism, a lot of state intervention and so on. So Europe developed.
The United States, as a typical case, had the highest tariffs in the world, most protectionist country in the world during the period of its great development. In fact, as late as 1950, when the United States literally had half the world’s wealth, its tariffs were higher than the Latin American countries today, which are being ordered to reduce them.

On Democracy :

The concern over stolen elections and vote tampering, and so on, is mostly an elite affair. Most of the country didn’t seem to care very much. “OK, so the election was stolen.” I mean, if you’re flipping a coin to select a king or something, it doesn’t matter much if the coin is biased. That seems to be the way most people feel about it. And there’s some justification.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 20 2006 2:08 utc | 58

My theory is that I was challenged to decipher the gibberish on the each of the previous three posts because they contained links to other pages.
I predict that I will not be so challenged on this one, which does not.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 20 2006 2:19 utc | 60

And forced to do so twice on the last post for the impudence of trying to interpret the gods.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 20 2006 2:21 utc | 62

Just stumbled on a post at Fire Dog Lake about the different between the Shi’a and the Sunni sects of Islam. What I really found interesting in it was the accompanying map, which makes it crystal clear what kind of fire we are playing with if we go for the “Shi’a 80% solution.” Unfortunately it is kind of small and the two colors of green are similar, so it is not as clear as it could be. But still, a useful visual aide for future reference when we want to think how the distribution of these two populations throughout the region might come into play.
It’s possible someone already linked to this earlier and I missed it. If not, then it is worth a look.
Let’s Talk About Sects

Posted by: Bea | Dec 20 2006 3:00 utc | 64

Helpful Spook, Dont watch it.

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 20 2006 4:26 utc | 66

I may have missed this post. In case it hasn’t been posted, we should note that finally in his dotage, Soros may finally do something non-predatory. It’s unfortunate that he isn’t apparently doing much to rein in the monster he created that could bring the whole edifice crashing down – ie. hedge funds. But he is, happily, funding an organization to counter AIPAC. Go George…
In the relatively close-knit Middle East lobbying community, it is something of an open secret that this past September, Morton Halperin, who served in both the Nixon and Clinton administrations and is now director of U.S. advocacy for Soros’ Open Society Institute, met with a group of lobbyists, political strategists and former politicians who are seeking to create a new well-funded, well-organized, left-leaning Israel lobby, as an alternative to AIPAC.The other Israel lobby
Given how many liberal Jews there are in America, far more methinks than reactionary ones, I’m really surprised they had to turn to him for buckolas. Wouldda thght. the Bronfman’s would have funded it, or the Hesses, or …

Posted by: jj | Dec 20 2006 5:40 utc | 68

while the headline is kinda duh…no kidding obvious, i suppose it does grab one’s attention
Evo: Foreign Agents Operate in Bolivia

La Paz, Dec 19 (Prensa Latina) Assuring that the changes in progress to benefit the population will continue, Bolivian President Evo Morales denounced a domestic and foreign conspiracy being organized against his government.
In his exclusive declarations to Radio Erbol on Tuesday, Morales said the Executive has evidence of the presence of foreign agents operating within the country, and gave two general examples without details.
He said that during the second South American Summit of Nations in Cochabamba (December 8-9), two suspicious US young men were detained, first claiming to be journalists and later, students, but they were neither.
Morales indicated that among the evidence seized from the young men were photos of Morales vehicle and invited guests to a party: Presidents Michelle Bachelet (Chile) and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil).
He also mentioned intelligence services identification of diplomatic vehicles leaving the home of an ex Bolivian Army general, suggesting they might have contained US officials.
Concerning a domestic conspiracy he noted the attitude of some politicians in the half moon departments (Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz and Tarija), at which meetings there is talk of “recovering power and several threats against the indigenous President.”

james petras, in his year-ending wrapup on latin america, doesn’t speak too highly of evo’s tenure so far

Contrary to White House expectations, but much to its liking, Evo Morales’ regime pursued orthodox, austere fiscal policies aimed at budget surpluses, eschewed any redistributive policies (virtually no land, mining or energy expropriations). While Morales demobilized the social movements and focused on endless legal procedures, the oligarchy regrouped, expanded its power base in Santa Cruz and threatens to bring down the government. While Washington’s oligarchic Bolivian clients advanced toward power (La Jornada, December 16, 2006) Evo Morales continued his self-destructive policies of symbolic radical populist rhetoric and greater concessions to the elites. Washington has maintained a foot in both camps, providing over $60 million dollars in foreign aid to Morales and untold millions to the opposition in Santa Cruz organizing massive ‘separatist’ demonstrations (HoyBolivia.com, December 16, 2006).

peering into his crystal ball, petras says next year will see the u.s. admin “continue to pressure Morales to make further concessions to the far-right civic-oligarchic coalition based in Santa Cruz, allowing the local business elite to ‘carry the ball’ for US imperial interests.”
wouldn’t it be nice if the only foreign agents the bolivians had to deal with were like this

Cuban physicians working in Bolivia have attended 2..8 million people in nearly 11 months, informed Armando Garrido, head of the medical cooperation in Bolivia.
That represents 30 percent of the country s population, many of them benefited from such attention for the first time, Garrido told Prensa Latina in a telephone interview.
He said that most of the Bolivian patients benefited from the work of the Cuban medical brigades in the 18 hospitals built in the country as a result of bilateral cooperation.

anyway, back to reality… two months ago, in a COHA analysis, it was pointed out that, in addition to concerns about ex- military personnel, there is cause for concern wrt active personnel — “Looking at Bolivia’s recent civil-military relations, Morales should not feel too secure that he has the military in his pocket.”

Earlier this year, up to 56 generals and admirals were sacked from their posts in a bizarre October 2005 scandal involving 28 Chinese ground-to-air missiles that had been in the possession of the army, but were sent to the U.S. for destruction without presidential approval. The missiles were Bolivia’s only anti-aircraft defense system.
Also, on September 23, General Marcelo Antezana, a retired commander of the Bolivian army, declared to the La Paz newspaper La Prensa that the armed forces were unhappy over the “anti-democratic socialist absolutism” and the “Cuba-Venezuela orientation” of the Morales government. He added that, “If the politicians do not deliver, the armed forces will have to act.”

i can’t easily find any figures for the number of current enlistees in the bolivian military who have attended the school of the americas, though more than 500 have gone through the school of the golpe in the last decade alone. long history between the two. best wishes to evo for keeping it all together.

Posted by: b real | Dec 20 2006 6:23 utc | 70

Jesus, let a banker near a blog & all hell breaks loose. So much for the commons – Invariably they mutate it into questionss of Private Property, making money…Arghhhh…Jerome

Posted by: jj | Dec 20 2006 8:25 utc | 72

Hashimi: Bush Blackmailed Blair on Timetable
Sistani Said to Back New Coalition

Although the NYT blames Sadr’s boycott for the failure of parliament to reach a quorum the last couple of times it tried to meet, in fact it is because many of the parliamentarians virtually live abroad (they like London) and just aren’t around in Baghdad to take part in a vote

I always wondered what made US/UK think they could rely upon Iraqis to pass their oil “privatization” bill, turning over Iraq’s oil wealth to thugs who invaded, destroyed and now occupy their country.
The answer is, of course, that they culd not and instead are relying upon a group of foreigners based in London with Iraqi sounding names, installed by the occupation as the “sovereign Iraqi government” to deliver for them.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 20 2006 12:23 utc | 74

nice one JFL
—
Apartheid in Israel: Report: Arabs in north get 10% of budget for rebuilding region

A new report released on Wednesday alleges that the State of Israel has allocated to Arab communities 10 percent, instead of the 30 percent pledged, of the budgets for rebuilding Israel’s north in the wake of the war in Lebanon.
…
Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office Ra’anan Dinur declared after the war that the state would rebuild communities damaged in the war.
At the time, Dinur pledged a third of the funds to be allocated to Arab communities, a third to Jewish communities and a third to national infrastructures in the region.
This division was to reflect the size of the Arab sector, constituting approximately 50 percent of the region’s population.

Posted by: b | Dec 20 2006 14:48 utc | 76

Apologies if this has been posted:
The Age of Mammals: Looking Back on the First Quarter of the Twenty-First Century. By Rebecca Solnit

The World Court and related human rights, environmental rights, and criminal courts became more powerful presences as the sun set on the era of nation-state. Multiple changes often combined into scenarios impossible to foresee: for example, the belated U.S. recognition in 2011 that the International Criminal Court did indeed have war-crimes jurisdiction over Americans coincided with the worldwide anti-incarceration movement. This explains why, for example, former President Bush the Younger, extradited from Paraguay and found guilty in 2013, was never imprisoned, but sentenced to spend the rest of his life working in a Fallujah diaper laundry. (People who are still bitter about his reign are bitter too that the webcam there suggests, even at his advanced age, he still enjoys this work that accords so well with his skill-set.) His assets — along with those of his Vice President, and of Halliburton, Bechtel, Exxon, and other war profiteers — were famously awarded to the Vietnamese Buddhist Commission for the Iraqi Transition. After almost a decade of the bitterest bloodshed, Iraq, too, had broken into five nations, but by this time so many nation-states were being reorganized into more coherent units that the Iraqi transition, led by the Women’s Alliance of Islamic Feminists (nicknamed the Islamofeminists), was surprisingly peaceful when it finally came.

Posted by: beq | Dec 20 2006 15:23 utc | 78

Jay Rosen on current “journalism”: Retreat from Empiricism: On Ron Suskind’s Scoop

Whereas if they tried to narrate the expansion of executive power (led by the vice president) through a revolt against empiricism (led by the chief executive) their story would be more accurate (to what happened) but less credible to more people. Because it sounds so extreme.
This is in fact a way to discredit the press that the press has not fully appreciated. Take extreme action and a press that mistrusts “the extremes” will mistrust initial reports of that action— like Suskind’s. This gives you time to re-make the scene and overawe people. There are all kinds of costs to changing a master narrative that has been built up by beat reporters and career pundits. When the press can hang on to an old and proven one it will. The Bush people understood that. They knew they could change the game on the press because the press finds it hard to act in reply. Therefore it tends to behave.
The idea that accuracy improves credibility is comforting. The more accurate you are, the more credible you will be, right? But in extreme situations—and invading Iraq with no particular and specific idea of what to do once there is an extreme situation—an accurate description is likely to be rejected, and the describer treated as in-credible. Reporters and editors are, I believe, intimately aware of this. Bob Woodward, as I have said elsewhere, wrote Plan of Attack because at the time it was a more credible book, even though Attack Without a Plan would have been more accurate.
When I read “Without a Doubt” I felt an immediate kinship with Suskind. Because I could see what he was trying to do: warn us about something that sounded crazy but was all too real. I could see he was going to fail in that, and I sensed that he knew it too. That’s what made it so sad to read.
Journalists and talking heads: if this month you wish to tell me that realism is back kindly tell me where you think it had gone to.

Posted by: b | Dec 20 2006 18:11 utc | 80

b:
The “Arabs” in the North of Israel are one half the population yet they will get one tenth the funds made available for repair of the damage caused by Israel’s attack and invasion of Lebanon.
During the war I read that the Palestinian areas of northern Israel suffered more damage from Hezbollah rcokets because Israel located most of their military installations, targets, in Palestinian civilian areas. So I imagine that the Palestinians half of the population of the north of Israel suffered a disproportioate amount of the damage from Israel’s latest war as well.
They are not “Palestinians” , of course, they are “Arabs”. The original, offical discrimination, printed approvingly without comment, by Haaretz.
The Palestinians are right to push for an internationally recognized Palestine in the tiny remnant of their lands left in the occupied territories, as well as for a tunnel built at US/Israeli expense to connect them, AND to press for proportional representation, power, and equity in the large portion of their lands named “Israel”.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 21 2006 3:29 utc | 82