Where's the Outrage?

• The Economic Policy Institute has completed their evaluation of President Obama’s new budget. As with all budgets, there are good things and bad things. Cuts to programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program are indefensible in my book. At all costs, no matter what our financial situation, we need to help and protect the poor. I really have a problem understanding how we can afford tax cuts for the rich, which do not create jobs, and we can’t afford to help the poor get through the winter. Read more of their analysis here and here.
• Representative Paul Broun of Georgia (Republican) held a town hall event this week in which one of his constituents asked “who is going to shoot President Obama?” The congressman ignored the question and moved on but is that enough? Later, the congressman’s office got in touch with the “appropriate authorities.” I’m still not sure that that’s enough. That man needed to be denounced right there, right then. Suppose it was 2003 and President Bush was in office. The amount of scorn that would’ve been heaped on this man for suggesting that President Bush should be assassinated would have been overwhelming. Security would’ve had to escort the man out of the room because the crowd would have tried to physically harm him. I’m sorry, but the congressman’s response was weak, tepid and unpatriotic. This is the president of the United States. Whether the congressman agrees with him or not, threats against our president’s life should not be tolerated!

• Governor Scott Walker is been in the news for the past 10 days. He is by far the most prominent Republican at this point in time. He stood strong against the unions. He’s been publicly humiliated by giving an interview to someone he thought was David Koch. Last night, the Wisconsin State assembly passed Scott Walker’s draconian budget bill in a surprise vote but the Senate does not have a quorum so it’s unclear what this means.
• Is Scott Walker is standing against jobs? It appears that he is. He shutting down several clean energy initiatives which would add hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs in the state of Wisconsin.
• Are the state union workers overpaid as Fox news and Scott Walker said they were? Sure doesn’t appear to be that way.
• The state of the health care reform law seems to have confused Americans. Yet another federal judge has declared it constitutional. With the daily back-and-forth, Americans have become confused. A new poll suggests a fifth of Americans believe that the healthcare law has been repealed. It hasn’t. HCR is still alive…at least for now.

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• The NFL owners in the NFL Players Association continue to head down the wrong road. For the most part, I hate when millionaires are arguing with millionaires. As far as I’m concerned, this is not about the high-paid football players. Instead, it’s about those guys who play football for a couple of years and are then discarded like a used handkerchief. They are 24 years old. Yes, they’ve made over half a million bucks over the last several years, but now they’re flat broke. In my mind, the negotiations are about these guys. The game of football will be hurt if there is a work stoppage.
• China has dropped the death penalty for some economic crimes.
• Unrest in the Middle East continues. No one’s quite sure who’s in charge of Libya. Oil prices are rising because of the uncertainty of Libya’s oil. My good friend, Brian Katulis, from the Center for American Progress, has written an excellent summary of what’s going on in the Middle East. President Obama and his administration have to perform a balancing act. We need to support the protesters, the people, and stay vigilant against possible terrorist threats. This is an outstanding article.

Tags: Budget, Civil Liberty, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Obama administration by ecthompson md
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• For the most part, I really enjoy going to work. I enjoy what I do. There’s only been one other time when I felt like I needed to be glued to the TV because there’s so much going on in the world. That was back on 9/11. We’ve got change and upheaval going on in the Middle East. Egypt is still a big question mark. Who knows what’s going on in Tanzania? Muammar Qaddafi, the long-standing leader (brutal dictator), looks like he needs to break out his escape plan. Morocco does not look all that stable. Bahrain has decided to stop shooting its own citizens but the “monarchy” is not talking with the opposition. I didn’t even know that Yemen had a president. Who knew?

• In Wisconsin, unions are finally standing up. I know there are those in the United States who truly hate unions. They have one or two union stories which have colored their judgment. The reason that you and I don’t work to exhaustion every single day, seven days a week, is because of unions. These are rights which were fought for. Let’s be honest with each other. There are the workers and then there are the executives. The executives give up nothing for free. Workers have to come together in order to bargain with management. If you bargain with management as an individual, most likely, you’ll be fired. Management can get five or 10 more just like you without lifting a finger. So, the only time the management listens to labor is when labor threatens to shut down operations. Unions have fought and won against child labor. Our country is better off because children are in school and not working 12-hour shifts on assembly lines. This wasn’t because of some great president who had some idea. Instead, the child labor laws came about because of unions. The reason we work 40 hours a week is because unions stood up against management. Everyone, in the United States, has benefited from unions standing together. So, I want to be in Madison, Wisconsin with American workers fighting for right that they earned more than 60 years ago, to collective bargaining.

• Sometimes, I find it truly amazing that politicians ever get out of their house. It seems like they’re just too in love with themselves to leave the mirror. They believe their yes-men. Remember Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, who thought he could run for president? He could not even win reelection in his own state. Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi, is one of these egotistical nut jobs. I’m not sure who told him that he was made of presidential stuff, but he has started to believe this. Mississippi is in the bottom five of almost every meaningful category there is. This is what Haley Barbour’s going to run on? Now, let’s not forget that he supported, to be more correct – strongly supported, these Citizen Councils, pro-segregation watchdog groups, vigilante groups which roamed South during the middle part of the last century. Mississippi is coming up with a license plate top honor Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. If ever you wanted to make a statement that would separate Mississippi from its racist past, this would be the time. Haley Barbour has said nothing. He’s been given opportunities on national stages to stand up and oppose the founder of the Ku Klux Klan on the Mississippi license plate, but no. Haley Barbour may be a brilliant political mind. He may be the Einstein of politics, but I just don’t see it. He reminds me of the Giuliani of politics. Remember when Rudy Giuliani decided he was going to skip Iowa, South Carolina and then sort of run in Florida? Remember when the pundits were saying how he was gonna save all this money and build up his warchest? How did that work out for Rudy Giuliani? Right now, and I’ll happy to say that I’m wrong if I’m wrong, Haley Barbour looks like a buffoon.

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Party Politics, Race by ecthompson md
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Yesterday, Egypt’s “President” Hosni Mubarak gave some rambling speech, ending with “I’m not stepping down.” (I paraphrased a little bit.) This in spite of the fact that highly placed sources stated that the President was going to vacate the office. To say that this was a let down would be the understatement of the decade. This led to more protests today. Finally, after 18 days of demonstrations, the president got out of Dodge. He abdicated. He left the building (with billions of dollars, not millions, but billions!!!).

I know that many progressives are doing the “happy dance” for the Egyptian people. I would like to wait. I would like to see what comes next. Currently, Egypt is under military rule. What kind of interim government will the military set up? What kind changes will be made to the Egyptian Constitution? Will the people be involved in any of these decisions? When will real elections be held? In my mind, there’s too much uncertainty for me to give a big thumbs up for a dictator who just left the office. I am happy for the Egyptian people but there is much work to do.

History tells us that democracy is hard. If democracy was easy, everyone would have one. Can the Egyptians make the difficult decisions and continue their progress towards freedom and liberty for all? This young Google executive, Wael Ghonim… can he step up to the plate and be the leader they Egypt needs him to be? What role did the US play in Mubarak leaving? Any or nothing? What role will the Obama administration play to support democracy?

From Aol’s HuffPost:

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak resigned as president and handed control to the military on Friday, bowing down after a historic 18-day wave of pro-democracy demonstrations by hundreds of thousands. “The people ousted the president,” chanted a crowd of tens of thousands outside his presidential palace in Cairo.

Several hundred thousand protesters massed in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square exploded into joy, waving Egyptian flags, and car horns and celebratory shots in the air were heard around the city of 18 million in joy after Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement on national TV just after nightfall.

Mubarak had sought to cling to power, handing some of his authorities to Suleiman while keeping his title. But an explosion of protests Friday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely. Hundreds of thousands marched throughout the day in cities across the country as soldiers stood by, besieging his palace in Cairo and Alexandria and the state TV building. (more…)

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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In my mind, the people of Egypt need to coalesce around a single leader. This way they can speak with a single voice. A single voice will make them stronger.

From Informed Comment:

The protest movement in Egypt scored several victories on Friday, but did not actually succeed in getting President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Their accomplishments include:

1. The hundreds of thousands (the Egyptian Arabic press is saying a million nationwide) of demonstrators showed that they had not been cowed by the vicious attacks of Ministry of Interior goons on Wednesday and Thursday, which killed 7 and wounded over 1,000.

Tahrir Square

2. By their determination and steadfastness, they put the Egyptian army in the position of having to protect them from further attacks by the petty criminals and plainclothes secret police deployed by the Interior Ministry. The alternative would have been a bloodbath that could have destabilized the country and would have attracted further international condemnation.

3. They showed that they still have substantial momentum and that the cosmetic changes made in the government (switching out corrupt businessmen for authoritarian generals as cabinet ministers) have not actually met their demands for reform.

4. They showed that they are a broad-based, multi-class movement, with working-class Egyptians clearly making up a significant proportion of the crowd in Tahrir Square.

5. They demonstrated that they are a nation-wide movement, bringing hundreds of thousands out in Alexandria, Suez, Ismailiya, Mansoura, Luxor, Aswan and elsewhere. [Read more →]

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Martin Luther King. The strength of his conviction for peaceful change seems to be remarkable. So, who is Egypt’s Martin Luther King?

From Informed Comment:

Anti-Mubarak Egyptians prepared themselves on Friday for a major campaign of street protests that they are calling not another “Day of Wrath” but rather a “Day of Departure,” an attempt to force President Hosni Mubarak to resign. By mid-morning thousands had already gathered at Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and at other key nodes in the capital. I am watching Aljazeera Arabic early Friday morning ET (10:15 am in Cairo), and can hear them chanting “En-Nahar-da! En-Nahar-da”– Today! Today! Some are tweeting that they expect at some point the army may block further protesters from reaching the square. Some tweets from the ground are saying that today the army is on October 6 bridge turning back Mubarak’s goons and thereby protecting the protesters.

Crowds have gone beyond the demand for the exile of the dictator to chanting for him to be arrested and put on trial for the murders and assaults on peaceful protesters. Meanwhile, the NYT reported Thursday evening that the Obama administration is talking to the Egyptian government with a view toward pressuring Mubarak to step down immediately in favor of his vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman, former head of military intelligence, who should then oversee a transition to a more pluralistic system with representation for Egypt’s political parties. (Actually the Egyptian constitution says the speaker of parliament should step in if the president is incapacitated). Senators John McCain and John Kerry successfully sponsored a resolution in the Senate asking for Mubarak to step down.

On Thursday, agents of the Mubarak regime had launched widespread attacks on journalists, in which 26 were beaten up and 30 were arrested, with 8 having their equipment seized. US cable news channels could no longer show live coverage. Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the country’s police and runs a network of neighborhood street gangs (baltagiya), is suspected by the US embassy of being behind the campaign against journalists, according to CNN. At one point on Thursday an Interior Ministry van was captured on video running protesters down.

I have a deep fear that the breaking of cameras, the closure of Aljazeera’s offices, the attacks on and threats against international journalists, were intended to blind the world to a planned atrocity against innocent, peaceful protesters on Friday. It may be that the strong condemnation of these moves by the US, Europe and others has made the Interior Ministry rethink any such plan.

The Mubarak regime on Thursday had also continued its attacks on the protesters at Tahrir Square downtown, deploying plainsclothes police, covert agents, and hired thugs in an attempt to take the square away from the dissidents. Although they attacked over and over again, they were unable to dislodge the demonstrators.

Iason Athanasiades,interviewed on Aljazeera, is reporting that the failure of the Interior Minister goons to chase the demonstrators from Tahrir Square despite brutal violence against them on Thursday has created increasing doubts in the military about the wisdom of attempting a bloody crackdown.

Recently appointed prime minister, Air Force Gen. Ahmad Shafiq, expressed regret for the violence on Thursday and seemed to blame it on partisans in the Interior Ministry of ousted domestic surveillance czar Habib El Adly.

Mubarak also said he was sad to see the violence, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour. Without a trace of irony he said he was ready to retire but was afraid that if he stepped down it would cause chaos.

How stupid do they think we are? Mubarak, Shafiq and VP Omar Suleiman almost certainly sat down in a room and authorized the Ministry of Interior to try out that brutal assault on peaceful protesters.

Proof 1: The Interior Ministry in a dictatorship doesn’t go off on rogue missions; these things are tightly controlled from the top.

Proof 2: The regular army stood aside and allowed the goons to attack the demonstrators, allowing them through checkpoints for their murderous mission. Soldiers do what they are ordered to do. (more…)

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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Very sad that the Egyptian government appears to be behind the violence.

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More from Informed Comment:

On Wednesday, the Mubarak regime showed its fangs, mounting a massive and violent repressive attack on the peaceful crowds in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. People worrying about Egypt becoming like Iran (scroll down) should worry about Egypt already being way too much like Iran as it is. That is, Hillary Clinton and others expressed anxiety in public about increasing militarization of the Iranian regime and use of military and paramilitaries to repress popular protests. But Egypt is far more militarized and now is using exactly the same tactics.

The outlines of Hosni Mubarak’s efforts to maintain regime stability and continuity have now become clear. In response to the mass demonstrations of the past week, he has done the following:

1. Late last week, he first tried to use the uniformed police and secret police to repress the crowds, killing perhaps 200-300 and wounding hundreds.

2. This effort failed to quell the protests, and the police were then withdrawn altogether, leaving the country defenseless before gangs of burglars and other criminal elements (some of which may have been composed of secret police or paid informers). The public dealt with this threat of lawlessness by organizing self-defense neighborhood patrols, and continued to refuse to stop demonstrating.

3. Mubarak appointed military intelligence ogre Omar Suleiman vice president. Suleiman had orchestrated the destruction of the Muslim radical movement of the 1990s, but he clearly was being groomed now as a possible successor to Mubarak and his crowd-control expertise would now be used not against al-Qaeda affiliates but against Egyptian civil society.

4. Mubarak mobilized the army to keep a semblance of order, but failed to convince the regular army officers to intervene against the protesters, with army chief of staff Sami Anan announcing late Monday that he would not order the troops to use force against the demonstrators.

5. When the protests continued Tuesday, Mubarak came on television and announced that he would not run for yet another term and would step down in September. His refusal to step down immediately and his other maneuvers indicated his determination, and probably that of a significant section of the officer corps, to maintain the military dictatorship in Egypt, but to attempt to placate the public with an offer to switch out one dictator for a new one (Omar Suleiman, likely). (more…)

Tags: Civil Liberty, Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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As many as two million flood downtown Cairo

A couple of big developments. (I really would like to talk about the Healthcare ruling, too, but this is my very busy week at work. I just don’t have the time. Maybe I could get a partner to take call so that I can blog? Not a chance.)

From Informed Comment:

The Egyptian army made clear late Monday afternoon Cairo time that it would not repress peaceful demonstrations. A spokesman read out a statement on television: The military said it was fanning out through the streets to prevent looting and acts of sabotage. It said that the military recognized the legitimacy of the demands of the people and of the demonstrators who are asking for vast political and social adjustments. It said it would “never resort to the use of force against this great people.”

Also:

The newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman of military intelligence, offered to open negotiations with the demonstrators.

Some analysts are interpreting these statements as a two-pronged strategy. But I wonder if they do not point to a split in the security forces. Suleiman is from military intelligence, not the regular army. The new prime minister, Ahmad Shafiq, is an officer from the relatively elite and pampered air force (like Mubarak himself).

The statement about not using force on the people came from the regular army, which is made up of a combination of staff officers and thousands of conscripts. Army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Sami Anan (Enan) may have decided to preserve the unity of his branch of the armed forces, the closest to the people, by throwing the other three under the bus.

As a smart Pakistani analyst put it:

‘ The Egyptian theatre now has four key players — Lt Gen Sami Annan, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Defence Minister, Air Marshal Ahmed Shafiq, Minister for Civil Aviation [and now Prime Minister], and Lt Gen Omar Suleiman, the intelligence chief. Of the four, Lt Gen Annan commands 468,000 troops, Field Marshal Tantawi oversees 60,000 Republican Guards while Lt Gen Suleiman is rumoured to be ailing. ‘

Thus, Suleiman’s offer to negotiate is probably a way of trying to keep the newly appointed military cabinet in power, perhaps with an eye to new elections, by reaching out to and perhaps bringing in from the cold at least some of the opposition. Lt. Gen. Anan, in contrast, seems not to care very much whether the Mubarak crew stays in power or not, as long as the institution of the army is safeguarded and law and order can be preserved.

In a mass popular uprising of the sort now ongoing in Egypt, unity of the military and security forces, their backing for the ruler, and willingness to be ruthless, are key to a government remaining in power. This combination of factors was present in Iran in summer-fall, 2009. But the news out of Cairo late Monday and into Tuesday suggests deep divisions and diffidence in the military, which bodes ill for Mubarak.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Mohamed Elbaradei warned Mubarak that he had better flee if he values his life. He said that crowds were no longer simply calling for his resignation, but were beginning to call for him to be put on trial.

I watched some official Egyptian television. It is disgusting, with the same tone and snark of Fox Cable News (which is calling the peaceful demonstrators “rioters.”) The anchor actually defended the security police for shooting down dozens of people on Thursday and Friday. “What else could they do?” A call came in from someone ranting that it was all a Muslim Brotherhood plot. Another man insisted that a few people in the street did not represent the whole people. You get a sense of what the salon conversations of Marie Antoinette must have been like in 1789.

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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I am not an expert on Egypt, nor do I think that in the next couple of days reading a few articles is going to make me an expert. So I’ll try and post some thoughtful articles from Juan Cole, a university professor and an expert on Middle East politics. (I had him on my radio show. He was great!)

From Informed Comment:

Protesters in downtown Cairo on Monday morning were calling for a general strike. On Tuesday, they said they will launch a ‘million-person march,’ clearly with the aim of toppling the Mubarak government.

On Sunday, a multi-party coalition of oppositionists had formed a 10-man committee to head their movement. The leader of the committee, in turn, is Mohamed Elbaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Elbaradei came down to Tahrir Square in the city center and addressed the thousands assembled there, to rapturous applause.

He repeatedly demanded Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. .

The Muslim Brotherhood is among the parties in the coalition backing Elbaradei. Their leadership may feel that having a secular person as the face of the movement will cut down on the fears of budding theocracy and threats of Western intervention.

Also among the proposed steering committee is long-time Mubarak opponent Ayman Nour. He had run against Mubarak in 2005, and was promptly jailed when the official statistics showed he had only garnered about 8 percent of the vote. Nour, head of the Tomorrow (al-Ghad) Party, had earlier proposed that the major opposition parties form an alternative parliament, which could then oversee the transition to full democracy. Elbaradei now seems to be endorsing this idea.

Meanwhile, further statements from Hosni Mubarak and his regime give a sense of his current strategy. He implicitly blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the sabotage and arson that has been committed against government institutions, including police stations. He contrasted the hooliganism of the Brotherhood with the peaceful aspirations of most Egyptians, and pledged to work for economic and social reform (while giving the pledge no content). Mubarak is attempting to split the movement against him by sowing seeds of doubt among its constituents. These include Coptic Christians, educated middle and upper middle class Muslims, and non-ideological youth, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. By suggesting that the MB is taking advantage of the protests to conduct a campaign of sabotage behind the scenes, with the goal of establishing a theocratic dictatorship, Mubarak hopes to terrify the other groups into breaking with the Muslim fundamentalists. Since middle class movements such as Kefaya (Enough!) are small and not very well organized, Mubarak may believe that he can easily later crush them if he can detach them from the more formidable Brotherhood.

It is a desperate ploy and unlikely to work. Mainstream Muslim Egyptians and Copts do have some fear of the Muslim Brotherhood as a sectarian and fundamentalist tendency, but their dislike of the Mubarak government for the moment seems to overcome their anxieties about a theocracy.

The other part of the strategy of Mubarak and his VP Omar Suleiman may be to gradually take back control via the army, and then slowly squeeze the crowds out of public spaces. If that is their plan, the million-person march on Tuesday could turn sanguinary.

But as one Egyptian woman said, “If they fire on the Egyptian people, Mubarak is finished . . . And if they don’t fire on the Egyptian people, Mubarak is finished.”

Tags: Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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So what happened on that flotilla? This video tells another story.

Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Iara’s Testimony. from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.

it is clear that this video tells another story of what happened on the flotilla. We don’t have the whole truth from either video that we’ve seen. I suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It appears that some on this flotilla were aching for a fight. Who brings a slingshot with them anywhere? On the other hand, Israeli commandos who attack in the middle of the night weren’t simply innocent victims either. In my opinion, this whole flotilla confrontation is a reflection of the whole Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Two peoples telling a story from two completely opposite sides of the spectrum. We’re not to get peace until we can find some middle ground. Right now, it doesn’t appear that anybody looking to hard to find that middle ground. Sooner or later everyone will need to come to the conclusion that they are not going to exterminate their opponent. Neither the Palestinians or the Israelis will get tired and move to Iowa. Both peoples have been in this land for thousands of years. an equitable solution needs to be found.

Tags: Israel, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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Really tired. Spoke at a rally after work. Need to pass healthcare reform now. Call your congressman.

• Russian secrets are for sale.  This is very scary.

From Political Animal:

• Israel: “The discord between the United States and Israel over Jewish building in East Jerusalem deepened Tuesday with Israeli officials rejecting demands by Washington and expressing anger over the public upbraiding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Obama administration. On a day of scattered — although, in spots, fierce — disturbances by Palestinians in East Jerusalem, news emerged that Israel was moving ahead with a second building project there.”
• Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East and South Asia, had a nuanced answer for the Senate Armed Services Committee on DADT repeal, but he acknowledged for the first time that “the time has come” to consider scrapping the existing policy.
• Don’t expect interest rates to go up any time soon: “The Federal Reserve on Tuesday repeated its pledge to hold interest rates at record lows to foster the economic recovery and ease high unemployment.”
• Nice to see a boost in consumer sentiment, for a change.
• Words of wisdom from Attorney General Eric Holder to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science.
• Important piece on U.S. Central Command and the “Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” that is jeopardizing U.S. standing in the Middle East.
• There’s a fascinating tale behind the gun used at the Pentagon shooting two weeks ago. The madman, John Patrick Bedell, was able to get the gun without a background check — which would have prevented the sale — at a Las Vegas gun show, taking advantage of the gun-show loophole.
• The burden of higher-ed costs on students and their families in California is pretty extraordinary.
• And demonstrating the kind of dignity we’ve come to expect from House Republicans, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) spoke on the House floor today and said the health care reform legislation should be eaten … and then “passed.” Stay classy, Louie.

Tags: Congress, Education, Israel, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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I’m on call tonight and the beeper is seizing, so I will not have time to post anything else today.  I will say that I’ll definitely have more on healthcare. I’m not sure that I agree with the Political Animal when he gives a thumbs down to Dennis Kucinich. I think that healthcare needs to be about something. I have mentioned multiple times that I wanted a bill that will be cost effective, be portable and increase access to healthcare. I’m not sure that the current version really does any of that. I think that Keith is right:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From Political Animal:

• The potency of Iraq’s insurgency seems to be waning: “Defying a sustained barrage of mortars and rockets in Baghdad and other cities, Iraqis went to the polls in strength on Sunday to choose a new Parliament meant to outlast the American military presence here.”
• On a related note: “Iraqi forces are on track to assume control of the country’s security and the United States is on course to draw down its troops to 50,000 by President Obama’s August deadline, U.S. officials said today.”
• Incredible bloodshed in Nigeria: “Officials and human rights groups in Nigeria said Monday that about 500 people had died in weekend ethnic violence near the central city of Jos, considerably more than what had initially been reported.”
• Vice President Biden travels to Jerusalem today, hoping to kick start Israeli and Palestinian talks. Negotiations have been on a hiatus for 14 months.
• U.S. troops begin their withdrawal from Haiti.
• A new TSA nominee: “President Obama has chosen a retired army intelligence officer, Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding, to head the Transportation Security Agency, a job that officials call the most important unfilled position in the administration.”
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), still prepared to vote with right-wing Republicans to kill health care reform.
• Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) is urging the state’s public colleges and universities not to extend discrimination protections to LGBT employees.
• CNN’s Wolf Blitzer never should have aired that ridiculous “Dept of Jihad?” segment, but I was glad to see him apologize.
• Jon Chait 1, Mike Allen 0.
• Fact checking the Sunday shows.
• Can online schools simply purchase legitimacy?
• The unintentional humor of The Weekly Standard.
• If I thought the National Review‘s Mark Stein had any idea what he was talking about, I might not like health care reform either.
• Sullivan: “Halperinism really is part of what’s deeply wrong about Washington.”
• Anti-gay California Republican admits that he’s gay.
• Maybe someday racists will realize that their ugly emails can and should have consequences.

Tags: Healthcare, Iraq, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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Jeremy Scahill of The Nation has been on the Blackwater story for the last three or four years and has written the definitive work on Blackwater. He is currently breaking the story which suggests that Blackwater chief, Erik Prince, was responsible for smuggling weapons into Iraq. This is illegal. Weapons smuggling was also discussed in his book. Now, the allegation of murder has raised its ugly head.

Watch the video:

From the Nation:

The former employee, identified in the court documents as “John Doe #2,” is a former member of Blackwater’s management team, according to a source close to the case. Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based on information provided to him by former colleagues, “it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct.” John Doe #2 says he worked at Blackwater for four years; his identity is concealed in the sworn declaration because he “fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this Declaration.” He also alleges, “On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince’s employ, Mr. Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence.”

In a separate sworn statement, the former US marine who worked for Blackwater in Iraq alleges that he has “learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former colleagues that one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in suspicious circumstances.” Identified as “John Doe #1,” he says he “joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel.” It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working with the company as he states he is “scheduled to deploy in the immediate future to Iraq.” Like Doe #2, he states that he fears “violence” against him for “submitting this Declaration.” No further details on the alleged murder(s) are provided.

“Mr. Prince feared, and continues to fear, that the federal authorities will detect and prosecute his various criminal deeds,” states Doe #2. “On more than one occasion, Mr. Prince and his top managers gave orders to destroy emails and other documents. Many incriminating videotapes, documents and emails have been shredded and destroyed.”  (more… )

Tags: Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Military by ecthompson md
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This is a very interesting development. For some reason, if you set up and independent government they start working independently.

Update:  Clearly I was mistaken.  I used the word independent and (Iraqi) government in the same sentence.   Faster than you can say Iraqi outrage, the Iraqi government seems to be back trackin’.  Blackwater is sort banned.  Like C3PO in the Empire Strikes Back, when he wanders into that room, Storm Troopers, here.  I have to warn the others.  Then he gets blasted.  I’m sure that someone in the White House or State Department or Pentagon or all three called Prime Minister Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  Consider his jets cooled.

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From CNN.com:

Iraq’s Interior Ministry has revoked the license of Blackwater USA, an American security firm whose contractors are blamed for a Sunday gunbattle in Baghdad that left eight civilians dead.

Blackwater, one of many security firms contracted by the U.S. government during the Iraq war, provides protection for American diplomats.

Sunday’s firefight took place near Nusoor Square, an area that straddles the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Mansour and Yarmouk. (more…)

Tags: Bush Administration, Iraq, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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In the Monday, New York Times, there was a full page ad by MoveOn.org.  I’m not sure what the big deal was except that Republicans wanted to take the focus off of Petraeus and his report.  MoveOn has been a favorite whipping organization of the Right so, why not.

Here’s the ad.  I posted something on this earlier.  TCR has some thoughts here.

Tags: Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Party Politics by ecthompson md
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It’s a cluster. That’s what they said, I paraphrased a little. This op-ed article in the New York Times needs to be read. These GI’s acknowledge what the Bush Administration and those Fox guys will not. We aren’t doing any more good over there. Period.

This is a GREAT Op-ED which will be denounced by the Right and Praised by the Left. Please note that the Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin and John Warner, former Chairman, have just returned from Iraq. They had a lot to say but the purpose of the surge was to allow for an Iraqi political settlement. That hasn’t happened. It also doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.

Update:  Tucker weighted in on this issue.   Tucker has 2 points.  First, he’s not sure if it is “right” for active military to comment on the war.  Second, the soldiers have the nerve to suggest that they have a clue what Iraqi’s think.

Tucker forgets that this is still a free country.  Anyone should be allow to express their opinion.  To Tucker’s second point, we have no idea how many Iraqis these soldiers came in contact with.  We don’t know if they spoke with other GI’s in other parts of Iraq to get a broad cross section of opinion.  As we have seen in the our own national polling, you don’t have to have a huge sample size in order to get a good sense of what is happening.  Really, none of this matters to Tucker, he give the viewer the impression that GI’s should shut up and fight.

Of course, Tucker is wrong. Enjoy the video.

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From NYT:

VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)

The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the “battle space” remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense.

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families. [Read more →]

Tucker - GI's speak out [ 6:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Military by ecthompson md
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Update: Bohammer noted that Dick Cheney was a part of the Project for a New American Century (a radical neocon think tank). You can find his signature here. Thanks for the heads up! Again, the question remains when did he change his tune and why? Did it have something to do with Halliburton and profits? Or was he lying then?

It seems that there is this clip of Dick Cheney back in 1994. He is asked if he believes that we should have invaded Iraq. He says no. He lists all of the reasons that he now rejects. What changed? I know the official line from the neocons is that 9/11 changed everything but Cheney changed before 9/11. He wasn’t was a part of the Project for a New American Century but all of his pals (Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld) were.

Ain’t recording devices cool!

Cheney did not want to go into Baghdad in 1994 [ 1:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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What more do we need? Al-Maliki says we can go. Look for the Bush Administration to spin this on the Sunday talk shows. Again, I would point out that George doesn’t want to go. That’s the deal.

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From CNN.com:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government’s military and political progress Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave “anytime they want.”

One of his top aides, meanwhile, accused the United States of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an “experiment in a U.S. lab.” (more…)

Tags: Iraq, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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Yep.  The Daily Show has made up another word.  I have no idea what it means.   Remember when Condi was telling us that the violence in the Middle East was birth pains?  Aasif Mandvi is reporting from Gaza.

The Daily Show continues to be funny and topical.  Jon Stewart has done a GREAT job at turning a segment that had grown old and tired on Saturday Night Live into a popular long running TV show.  Just look at their opening graphics and set.  Now, compare it to 3 or 4 years ago.  The Daily Show has come a long way.

TDS - Warportunity [ 5:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), The Daily Show by ecthompson md
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You knew that this was coming. With all of our resources in Iraq, we can’t effectively respond to disasters here at home. According to Keith Olbermann, 50% of the Kansas National Guard’s equipment is over in Iraq. This war is costing us in ways we haven’t even begun to calculate.

Countdown - Where's the National Guard [ 5:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Countdown, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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C&L has the debate between Rocky Anderson the outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and Sean Hannity of Fox News.

Tags: Iraq, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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