Dow Crosses 11,000 for 1st Time Since 2001

Dow Crosses 11,000 for 1st Time Since 2001

...and the average American doesn't feel a
*!*##!* difference.

For the past 12 months, at least on paper, economic growth was solid: unemployment was relatively low, the housing market strong, and consumer spending firm. Yet a nagging sense of uncertainty just wouldn't go away. Perhaps it was pure logic: after all, consumers spent money they didn't have, companies continued to lay off workers by the thousands, and wage growth was non-existent. Throughout it all, bullish Wall Street economists ignored their instincts to claim all was well. LINK

Recently, two experts on the economy were asked, on Fox News Sunday, for their opinions on the 2006 election fallout from the current economy, and both experts gave dismal predictions for Republicans because the majority of average Americans are not feeling that they are any part of this economic recovery. Interestingly, all records of that exchange on Fox News Sunday have been purged from - or have never been included in any internet record.

Christian Women the Only Hope for Western Survival?!

Christian Women the Only Hope for Western Survival?!
Give me a break!

Pay close attention to what Father Joseph D. Fessio, who is the Provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida has said in a recent interview with Hugh Hewitt:

I don't think Benedict XVI is thinking that we're going to have a new Christendom, in which Christian principles permeate all of society. I think he probably is more, his vision is that we must be faithful to Christ, and He will support us and strengthen us, and we can't predict what our role will be in society. But it's probably going to be as a minority....

...Once there's an Islamic majority...it's going to eliminate religious freedom. However...and therefore, Western civilization as we know it. However, in the United States, we also are not having children. There's abortion. There's contraception....I believe that Christians in the United States are the ones who will be able to save not just Christianity, but Western civilization, if we maintain our fidelity to the scriptures, our fidelity to Christ, our fidelity to family life, and our fidelity to fertility and fruitfulness in marriage.

According to this Jesuit priest, the future of Western civlization is based upon a dependence upon women to submit to oppression for its ideological sake. This would require a great loss of freedom and progress for women. If this was taken seriously, it would mean the West's societal/cultural shift backwards to the illegalization of birth control, education, and equal labor opportunities for the female population, along with a silencing of their ideas in the public square.


Excuse me, but that sounds an awful lot like what we are accusing Islamic theocrats of doing.

Knowing that a Jesuit priest would use the faith to cut into human freedom in worldly panic about the end of Western values - well, my own Bible-based Christian intuition tells me not to trust that line of thinking - and to run from it.


photo by sume

Target Iran?

Target Iran?
Washington Times editor talks tough but offers no international solutions

Washington Times editor Arnaud de Borchgrave is at it again - spinning some genuine international concern into an accusation of naivete and gullibility....which will undoubtedly launch a fear-saturated public discussion about Iran. Call me a fortune-teller - this will generate another unilateralist reason with the hard-liners for the U.S. to go to preemptive war with yet another sovereign nation. "Target Iran?" No one speaks about the destabilization of the Middle East if and when that would happen. As I have recently said, I'm sick and tired of media editors and pundits planning US wars for my son - and yours. Iran's leaders may be "sticking it in our face" with their rhetoric, but we have an impulsive, determined, and reactionary White House administration who we know, from experience, could arrogantly neglect the existence of the UN tools-in-existence and send our troops into Iran for blatant neoconservative wishes. That is an extremely dangerous thought, knowing how our military is already stretched because of the mess in Iraq. Anyone who believes that Middle Eastern destablilization caused by our unilateralism would not be destructive to our nation's economy and security is naive and gullible.

Borchgrave criticizes President Bush for being naive about all of Islam, and in defense of President Bush, this is not true. I have heard the President clearly separate the overwhelming majority of Muslims from those who would use the religion for power and violence. Borchgrave is out of line.

Let's get real. We are a part of the greater world. Ask any modern economist. It's a dangerous world - and we can't go it alone.

I hope that President Bush will start listening to sane voices instead of the neoconservative voices he's let into his head. Power cannot be genuinely won by the level of unilaterlism our President has employed - only hatred and the turning away of the hearts and minds we needed so desperately throughout this world (the very kind that Borchgrave describes in his fear-mongering manifesto with the brave title "Target Iraq" and no further comment about how Iran should be "targeted.")

____________

Tolerance or Terror?

Israpundit tells us of a revealing investment tale about the two faces of one particular Saudi prince. I think it's fair to ask:
What will it be?
Tolerance or terror?

I think that's a fair question to ask.

US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist

US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist

Journalist as enemy? What the hell are we thinking?

Guardian excerpt:

Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.

Juan Cole's comment:

This is very troubling on all sorts of levels. US troops do not have a Status of Forces agreement with Iraq and do not have a constitutional right to arrest civilians without a warrant. And, the US military should not be harassing journalists reporting on contract fraud.

Jill Carroll and the Raid on a Sunni Mosque

Jill Carroll and the Raid on a Sunni Mosque
Note - I've changed the name of this post since I learned of Jill Carroll's abduction. See Update below.

It should be a foregone conclusion that an American raid upon an influential Sunni civic organization will not convince Sunni Arabs that assimilation into an Iraqi democracy would be an advantageous venture. A raid upon one of its trusted institutions tells the Sunnis: We believe that you are the enemy.

From Reuters (excerpt):

Sunni Arabs are .. angry about a raid by U.S. soldiers this weekend on the offices of the Muslim Clerics' Association, an influential group of Sunni scholars.

Reuters Television footage showed spent shotgun shells and special explosive charges used to blow out door locks lying on the ground following the pre-dawn raid on Sunday.

Many office doors showed signs of forced entry, papers were strewn on the floor and windows smashed.

The U.S. military said the raid was conducted in response to a tip-off of "substantial terrorist activity" in the mosque complex and says its soldiers behaved respectfully.

But the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab coalition, urged its followers to gather at the Umm al-Qora mosque on Tuesday to protest what it described as the "sinful assault."

"It is a direct and intended act against Sunnis," said Abdul Hadi al Zubeidi, a senior member of another Sunni coalition, the Sunni Gathering. "It is an assault. It will only worsen relations with them (the U.S. military)," he told Reuters.

The raid came at a time when Washington is trying to encourage Sunnis to abandon support for the insurgency.

I am not saying that our military didn't have reason to be on alert. I am saying that this a twisted and tangled cause that will not be straightened by any of the logic that the Pentagon and White House are spinning about. We say that we want the Sunni Arabs to join in the forming of a democracy - and we blow down the doors of their religious institutions, suspecting them of terrorist activity.

Which is it? Are they terrorists or citizens? Who decides?

This brings to mind the pirate's quote from St Augustine's "City of God":

"Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor."

UPDATE January 10:


Jill Carroll

+ I have found out that this attack was related to the story of the missing (kidnapped) Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll, whose writings I have found to be extremely valuable to the uncovering of the truth in Iraq. Look at how recently I used the information she was sending. I was not aware of her abduction because there was a weekend news blackout on the abduction of the CS Monitor reporter. [see Editor & Publisher] I'm hoping that the reason she was taken was to inform her - not to hurt her. I am concerned, however, that information is not in the forefront of her captors' minds because her translator was murdered. My heart is with Jill and her family right now. May she return safely.


BBC News:

US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said the raid was ordered "as a direct result of a tip by an Iraqi civilian that activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside the mosque. Both Iraqi and coalition forces raided the mosque in the early morning hours in order to minimise the impact on worshippers and the surrounding neighbourhood," he added.

It is an inescapable perception. The attack on the Umm al-Qura mosque is seen by some Sunni Arab Muslims as an attack on Muslims and Islam. We may not agree, for we have been informed of the reason for the raid. If any journalist was endangered, I would want her (or him) to be brought to safety at just about any cost. In the real world, wars happen when people can't agree. This war is seeming more senseless by the day. There is no ethical integrity - only a dangerous and deadly neoconservative pipe dream about Western democracy within an Islamic theocracy. You could ask Jill Carroll if she could only be here, and she would tell you that we're negotiating with the same factions that are abducting our journalists. We are abducting their journalists. Our occupation is increasingly making things worse.

I pray for Jill's safety.

UPDATE JANUARY 11

Fellow journalists in Baghdad rally to help find Jill

TIME story by Christopher Allbritton

At Slate, Jack Shafer, emotion about a fellow journalist removed, asks how long is long enough for the media to black out a kidnapping story:

I know it's easy for me to meditate about this topic from the safety of my Washington office while journalists labor under the threat of death every day in Iraq. But the questions remain. If the press should spike news to help a colleague, how long an interval is decent? Should it be 48 hours, as in Carroll's case? Until the local press reports the story? Until the abducted person's employer confirms the news? Until the U.S. Embassy does? Or until the kidnappers make their announcement on the Web? I don't have any easy answers, just easy questions.

The president of Military Reporters and Editors (MRE), Sig Christenson, criticized U.S. media outlets late Tuesday for engaging in a two-day blackout. [Editor and Publisher]Sig Christenson asks:

"Do we really want to put reporters in a special class when we do a story? Is it ethical to do that and is it wise?"

UPDATE JANUARY 12

Editor and Publisher reports that there is no news in the search for abducted journalist Jill Carroll.

Comments regarding an IPS article by Brian Conley and Isam Rashid:

I have to say that something doesn't jibe here, and the journalists are pointing it out. Does it strike you as odd that we would act as we did against this Sunni organization, given the nature of their status as brokers for peace throughout the war?

..there is no known connection between the organisation and such groups, or with the abduction of Jill Carroll. The U.S. forces apparently acted on a tip-off from one Iraqi....It is difficult to understand why the United States would single out the Association of Muslim Scholars as an initial target in the investigation of Jill Carroll's abduction. The organisation has condemned the taking of hostages in Iraq. It has opposed the political process under the occupation, but has continued to call for peace.

Read the following:

Through the raid, the offices of the Association at the mosque were ransacked. Witnesses said they found graffiti by way of stylized crosses drawn with thick markers.

If our soldiers did this, do we think it's something they should be allowed to do? I certainly think it's detracting from the overall mission and giving the appearance of an admission that we are fighting the Holy War so many of the Islamic fundamentalists wish to think they are fighting. How will this serve to better protect Jill Carroll, who freelanced regularly for the Christian Science Monitor?

"If the occupier would leave, Iraqis would live as brothers.

- Dr. Harith Al Ubaidi, Sunni political leader

Brothers who will likely continue to kill one another in warlord turf-battles. When the Grand Ayatollah in Najaf gives his fatwa for US ground troop withdrawal (which will inevitably occur when Iraq thinks it's ready,) we will probably move to the air-war phase and blow up selected militias in the name of the new Iraqi government. Regardless of when we leave, the rage will remain. Thousands of our ground troops could have left 3 years ago with the same result.

What will we have accomplished, when we leave Iraq, knowing that the rage will remain - and that we only inflamed it when our nation decided, with our own brand of noeconservative fundamentalist determination, to break Iraq? How will we be proud of the fact that, regardless of its touches of Western-style democracy (enough to secure capitalist goals, not quite enough to avoid a setback for women) it is a de facto Islamic theocracy? How does any of this compare to our American revolution? Did our forefathers blow each other up in the common after the Declaration of Independence was read? All we wil be able to say is that elections were held for a loose central (theocratic) government in Baghdad that the Kurds will ignore and the Sunnis feel left out of, and we (often unsuccessfully) tried to keep warring factions of the society in Iraq from slicing each other's throats while it happened. And then..........

UPDATE - JANUARY 13

Vigorous efforts are under way on many fronts – by the Monitor, many media organizations, and government forces in Iraq – to locate and secure the release of Jill Carroll, the freelance reporter kidnapped January 7 in Baghdad while on assignment for the Monitor. No one has yet claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.
[CSM]

Reporters in Baghdad Join in Search for Carroll Kidnapper
"...the reporters also have been gathering statements of support from people in Baghdad who know Carroll to "show she is a good reporter and empathetic to Iraqi people."

US Using Economic Pressure to Spurn ICC

US Using Economic Pressure to Spurn ICC

Human rights activists say that Jordan's parliament should firmly reject a "strong-arm attempt by the US to exempt its own citizens from international law." Jordan's parliament has approved a new law that prevents Amman from handing over U.S. citizens accused of war crimes to the international criminal court (ICC).

According to Reuters

Jordanian politicians privately said ratifying the accord was crucial to maintain U.S. military and economic aid which many lawmakers believe was tied to the ratification of the bilateral accord.

Bribing other nations to move away from world cooperation on human rights is a dismal proposition - and apparently a reality.

Generals Split on Iraq

Generals Split on Iraq

There seems to be a split in key ideas about strategy between top military commanders in Iraq. How well will this serve America's mission? Who's pulling the strings? Which opinion will be gagged and muffled? If this public split in philosophy does not die down, who will back down? Is it a civil war in Iraq or not? If it's not a civil war happening in Iraq today (regardless of the US support/presence there) what is it? Why is the President and his administration having such a hard time explaining the "who's who' categories of those who are killing our troops and one another in Iraq? It gets increasingly complicated. The storyline behind the war is cracking. Our emotional strings that have been pulled by the Commander in Chief about the glories of freedom and democracy in Iraq are being met with public discord as those strings begin to fray under the tension of a strikingly different tune. Iraqis aren't only killing us. They're killing each other. On a daily basis.

The current split in the Generals' publically-stated views, along with the knowledge that J. Paul Bremer tried to warn the Secretary of Defense and the President that we strategically had it very wrong from the very beginning of this war in Iraq, causes me to realize that, for whatever reason, one of these Generals isn't being forthcoming enough.

When we decide to pull out of Iraq, what are we going to leave behind? How will we redeploy? There has never been a day of real security in Iraq since we got there. How long can our military stay there and pretend that there is a real goal for success and peace in their sights? What about the ethical aspects - being responsible for what we have done? We broke a nation - and flattened its civil structure - and we are going to let them foot their own bill for reconstruction? This does not make me a proud American.

The Iraq war has not only loosened a regime in a foreign country, it has loosened the glue of unity among citizens at home. We're told, by political leaders like Senator Joe Lieberman, that questioning the credibility of our own President is damaging to our security, but don't we we have the duty to stand up for what we think is right? We've learned important lessons by looking back on world history, when there have been many leaders who should have had their credibility questioned much sooner - before great damage was done. How can we trust in men who employ politics and war as a means to retain power rather than acting cooperatively with the world toward a safer world?


From yesterday's NY Times:

Sectarian rivalries and inefficient Iraqi ministries could turn the Iraqi security forces into "militias or armed gangs," Lt. General John Vines, the senior US operational commander in Iraq, said in an interview....In the weeks leading up to the December election, however, General Vines differed with his boss, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. over how and where to assign troops to ensure a peaceful and successful balloting.

Karen Kwiatkowski [Huffington Post] asks 'What's up with the "he-said/he-said" upon reading the public disagreement this week between Green Zone commander General George Casey and his predecessor, 5th Corps Commander in Germany, Lt General Ricardo Sanchez. Like Lt. Gen John Vines, General Sanchez says that he believes "Iraq is on the verge of civil war." [source: Stars and Stripes] Dr. Kwiatkowski says:

Within hours, Casey, speaking to CNN in Washington, said specifically that Iraq was NOT on the verge of civil war. [CNN]

The confused message reveals a crack in the Bush rhetoric about the "good" we've been doing in Iraq by bringing our war to their land. Dr. Kwiatkowski:

"..the real truth is uglier than simple civil war. The destruction of a sovereign Iraq was the primary objective of this war - and that mission has in fact been accomplished."

When the rubber meets the road of reality, we see that the Bush administration has never believed in any moral cause in Iraq. Dr. Kwiatkowski:

"The cost in human lives, spirit, and hope on all sides, as well as the financial cost may not have been worth it for those "piling on" and going "defeatist" in the reality based world, but who cares? The reality-based world is an ugly place. The Casey-said, Sanchez-said debate prefigures a year ahead that may be remembered as the year the reality-based world rudely intruded on the Potomac, shattering what is left of the façade and completely exploding the myth that Bush-Cheney policies have made either the Middle East more democratic, or America safer."

In a cold and unforgiving world, the neoconservative method of using our military to "spread democracy" is a cruel, ineffective, and dangerous prospect.

The split in the General's ideas about the status of Civil War in Iraq is raising many questions about whether we should stay or go; whether we are leaving Iraq broken and having to fend for its own reconstruction (*"See ya - wouldn't wanna be ya"); whether the world has been made safer for Americans; whether America has been made safer or left with a stronger democracy; whether we have wasted and ruined many lives for a war that was never necessary, in hindsight.

Some defenders of the war may accuse me of using sentimentality to use as ammunition in my writing about the truth of what we have done in Iraq for the past three years.

As a writer and a human being, I think it's cowardly for political pundits to demean a writer's sense of sentimentality and humanity in the hope that avoiding it altogether will facilitate an amoral political goal that is producing immoral results. The discounting of sentimentality reveals itself to be democratically damaging if we fail to ask ourselves if what we are doing in Iraq has been effective - and if it has mattered.

All sentimentality aside, it's important for the American people to understand the reality of what our nation has done in the name of its citizens. The American public's base fears were played like finely-tuned fiddles by fear-mongering Republican propaganda in the 2004 Presidential election campaign. This created an elective result that was an affirmation to continue what we now know was an amoral and, by the nature of the results, an immoral cause.

Our leaders may not have lied to us, but they certainly did not tell us the truth.

Alito Hearings: Grease is The Word

Alito Hearings: Grease is The Word
Abramoff Greased Palms of Republicans; Christian Right Greases Seats for Alito

"We did adequately apply oil to all the seats."

- Rev. Rob Schenck, who identified himself as an evangelical Christian and as president of the National Clergy Council in Washington

From the Wall Street Journal:

Insisting that God "certainly needs to be involved" in the Supreme Court confirmation process, three Christian ministers today blessed the doors of the hearing room where Senate Judiciary Committee members will begin considering the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito on Monday.....[They] let themselves in a day earlier, touching holy oil to the seats where Judge Alito, the senators, witnesses, Senate staffers and the press will sit, and praying for each of the 13 committee members by name....Capitol Hill police said they weren't aware that the three had entered the hearing room earlier, but added that hearing rooms typically aren't locked because "they're not of interest to anyone.

The same Rev Robert Schenk said something extremely judgemental about the families of the miners who lost their lives in West Virginia.

Sunday News - Dean Calls Bush a "Turn-off"

Sunday News - Dean Calls Bush a "Turn-off"

HOWARD DEAN ON CNN:

+ ON JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: It's a matter of trust.
+ ON SEN. LIEBERMAN: He's insulting Americans who stand up for what's right.
+ ON DONALD RUMSFELD: He should resign now.
+ ON PRESIDENT BUSH: He's turning off Latin America, thus stifling democratic progeress


Questioned by Wolf Blitzer this morning on CNN, Howard Dean said that, in an ethically charged atmosphere in Washington DC, we don't want or need more fears about scandals within our own Supreme Court. There are some disturbing questions about SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito. Advocating for strip-searches of 10-year old boys and a conflict of interest on a case regarding mutual funds (with a refusal by Alito to recuse himself) are not going to be issues that engender trust in Alito's ability to be the right choice for the position of Supreme Court justice.

*An aside on ALITO: Unrelated to the Dean interview, Fox News Sunday's regular panelist Juan Williams commented this morning that the narrowing of the scope of individual rights indicated by some of the Judge's past legal decisions should be of concern to citizens, especially his dismal record on affirmative action. Williams was so strong in his conviction that fellow panelist reacted (in full knee-jerk mode) by accusing Williams of "smearing" Alito.

Blitzer asked what Dean thought about a filibuster. Dean replied that he had no real vote and therefore he had no comment. It would be up to Senators like Patrick Leahy, Senator Reid, and others who will decide once they've heard answers to their questions. It's their perogative as Senate members and leaders to decide from there.

Dean said he was disgusted and incensed when he read (in the Washington Post) that 80% of torso injuries to troops in Iraq could have been prevented had there been sufficient body armor. Donald Rumsfeld should resign his position as Secretary of Defense.

Regarding Senator Joseph Lieberman's statement

"In matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril":

Howard Dean said that the President has lacked credibility since he entered office. He isn't interested in consulting others. Dean said that Senator Lieberman is "insulting Americans who wish to stand up for what's right."

As for President Bush, Dean says that Bush has "turned off" Latin American countries and has therefore moved any hope for democracy in the wrong direction. When you 'turn people off,' they'll do things that are not in our nation's best interests.

On the GOP/Jack Abramoff scandal: Dean said that "not one Democrat took money from Abramoff." He claimed that FEC reports will prove that what he's saying is true. Some Democrats received donations from Indian tribes, but Americans are being misled to believe that elected Democrats such as Byron Dorgan received money directly from Abramoff.

UPDATE: Atrios has the transcript.

Crooks and Liars has the video.

BOOKS

Christopher Buckley reviews Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette's) steamy blog novel "Dog Days."




(to be cont'd)

Chris Trapper Performing with Boston's Wolverine Jazz Band

Chris Trapper Performing with Boston's Wolverine Jazz Band


Chris Trapper

If you're in the Boston area, don't miss this great singer who'll be performing tomorrow night at Harpers Ferry in Allston.

See the preview article here.



A solo CD "Gone Again," the second from the talented singer/songwriter, also of Push Stars fame, offers 11 new songs.

See Jonathan Perry's Boston Globe article.

And the Boston Herald interview with Christopher Blagg.

If you're in the Syracuse NY area, Chris will be performing (solo) at the Redhouse on January 24
See All Tour Dates at the Chris Trapper website.

Got a question? Ask Chris.

Pat Robertson's Latest God-Gaffe Likens Him To Iran Leader

"...no matter how profoundly religion influences you, when you make a public argument, you must ground your statements in reason and a language of morality that is accessible to everyone—to people of different religions or no religion at all. In our diverse democracy, Americans need a common political discourse not dominated by exclusivist theology."

- Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie

Pat Robertson's Latest God-Gaffe Likens Him To Iran Leader
Pat Robertson is at it again. Media Matters tells the story of Mullah Pat's latest gaffe-for-God. As "Just to the Left" points out, Robertson now has something in common with the idiotic leader of Iran.

If you take Pat too seriously, you're probably one of those people from the United Hates of America - the place where some call for a united nation - minus anyone who doesn't share their eschatology and world view.

As we know too well, we are all human beings - and everyone eventually dies. All Pat Robertson is doing, by what I consider to be his uber-sick judgement, is setting himself up to be judged likewise (harshly and ignorantly) by his fellow human beings when it's time for God to unloose Pat's mortal coil.

I can just hear the comments now....

"God took Pat because...."

- He arrogantly tried to speak for God instead of teaching others to act for God
- He spun the 700 Club news like chicken rotisserie - until it was unrecognizable to reality.
- He was getting back at Pat for those goofy comments about (Sharon; Chavez; Dover, PA)
- Jerry Falwell was too busy blaming gays and women for natural disasters.

A truly holy man would never say such a thing about PM Sharon. Shame on Pat. The biblical laws of Leviticus, which Jesus said he "came not to destroy but to fulfill," envisioned a community in which everyone was secure in his own home and property, "beneath his vine and fig tree".

Everyone.

Not just one ethnic group.
Not just one race.
Not just one gender.

God's land? You're there - wherever you are, if you have faith, you're there. Ask a Mormon where God's land is - and you know that the answer will be different than what a Muslim's version of where God's land would be - or a Jew - or a Hindu. While the land of the tribes of Israel is prophetically significant, the Nation-State created in the 1940s is a political creation and entity.

Religious triumphalism and politics are a horrible and dangerous mix. After generations of war, Israelis are tired of fighting. They long to sit "every man beneath his vine and fig tree." The people of Israel want peace - just like any civil citizens want peace.

The snarling of Pat Robertson only prods the pro-war hard-liners on. Since when is Jesus or God pro-war? This statement about Sharon is just as devoid of Christian value as Robertson's recommendation (as an alleged holy man) to assasinate another human being. As a Christian, Robertson causes me embarrassment and shame.

Since I'm a generous soul, I won't trash him altogether, because he's done some good things. One positive thing he's done lately is to lend his name to the ONE.org anti-poverty campaign. He's not a bad fellow at heart, he's just a bit confused as to who "wears the God-pants in the family of man." He looks loco in the coco when he speaks as if he was God Himself. Who's feeding his 700 Club kitty? The eschatological spin his crew puts on every bit of their biased political news has turned the 700 Club Christian kitty into a ferocious pro-war savage lion ...the kind that bared its teeth and killed Christians in the Flavian Amphitheater while the Romans cheered!


Because of his God-on-earth complex, Robertson has destroyed his credibility with any Christian who does not share his extreme world view, which is more of a national theology than a Christian theology. Robertson is doing too much "rendering unto Caesar" - who is, in the present case, George W. Bush.

Even Caesar is embarrassed!

Real Christians don't do Caesar.

______________


Max Blumenthal wants to tell you about the Justice Sunday bunch.

Negotiating With "Terrorists"

Negotiating With "Terrorists"

Christian Science Monitor - America's waning clout in Iraq

Jill Carroll and Dan Murphy explain how, because of the U.S. waning influence in Iraq today, Americans will likely cut a deal with political figures who've had direct ties to the insurgency in order to "cut the Shiites down to size." [the words of Dan Plesch, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London]. This will very likely increase the short-term risk of violence. Expect more blood, violence, and death. It's too late, from a political standpoint, for the U.S. to "reoccupy" Iraq. Taxpayers would never "go for" the costs that it would entail in lives and treasure. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad will be a key player in future negotiations (with "terrorists" - or whatever George W. Bush and the Pentagon are calling "them" these days). This is a far cry from the early muscular Bushworld promises of never negotiating with the "enemy." That kind of rhetoric may have won Bush some votes, but in the real world, it never could have won this war.

The idea of the creation of an international donor body is being entertained. It would have to be one that would allow for real influence to be exercised by all partners. David Mack, vice president of the Middle East Institute in Washington says:

"If we could do something like western Europe after World War II, where economic support for Iraq was internationalized and we contributed heavily, that would be far more attractive to the Iraqis than anything we have offered so far."

This should be an interesting development to watch.

Jon Stewart to host 78th Oscar Awards Show

Jon Stewart to host 78th Oscar Awards Show



Ohhhh, yeah. This is gonna be good....

...according to three sources familiar with the process, the job of hosting the 78th Academy Awards will go to Jon Stewart, the Emmy-winning writer-host of "The Daily Show"

I look forward to the laughs.

PEN World Voices Festival 2006

PEN World Voices Festival 2006

The second PEN World Voices Festival will feature 50 international writers who will gather in April, 2006 to explore the timely theme of Faith and Reason. Some of the featured writers:

Chris Abani, Boris Akunin, Sherman Alexie, Roberto Calasso, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Nadine Gordimer, David Grossman, Moses Isegawa, Elias Khoury, Henning Mankell, Helen Oyeyemi, Anna Politkovskaya, Asne Seierstad, Colm Tóibín

Nadia - A Victim of the Silent War in Afghanistan

Nadia - A Victim of the Silent War in Afghanistan
Women in Afghanistan, victims of domestic violence, continue to struggle for their rights

Violence against women in Afghanistan is still a major problem. Being female - being a writer - and being a wife in Afghanistan is still an extremely perilous proposition. This is a story that is a couple months old, but was only discussed briefly on the blogs. Last November 4, following a fight with her husband, young Afghan poet Nadia Anjuman died. Farid Ahmad Majid Nia, 27, Nadia’s husband of 15 months, was arrested and charged with her murder. A lecturer in philology at Herat University, he has vehemently proclaimed his innocence. Nadia committed suicide, he insists. His story goes:

She became angry, and cursed me, calling me names like ‘ass’ and ‘son of a bitch’. I slapped her,” he said. A few hours later, according to Farid, Nadia came to him and told him she had taken poison. [about.com]

Nadia’s family and friends did not believe her husband.

“Farid called me and told me that Nadia had taken poison,” said Nadia’s mother, who did not want her name used. “But when I got to the hospital, I saw that Nadia’s face and neck were all bruised.

A close friend of Nadia said:

“Nadia was very religious and she strongly condemned those who committed suicide. She said it was against Islam.”

This is not to publically try the husband, but to point out that violence against women should never be accepted or tolerated - not in any culture. What makes this even sadder is that Nadia and her husband had a six-month-old daughter. What will that little girl grow up to understand about her mother, whose face and touch she may never remember?


Three generations of women in Herat, Afghanistan
photo credit: Johns Hopkins University

Women are not seen as human beings in Afghanistan, but like commodities that people can sell, trade or buy. There are totally inadequate human rights for women in Afghanistan - they cannot study, they cannot work, they are married off at the age of tweleve or thirteen.

From Kabul, there came an open letter from the Afghan Women’s Network related to Nadia's murder:

Even though human rights issues are greatly discussed and cared for by the society and the government, protection of women’s rights has not been a priority. The murder of 25-year-old poet Nadia Anjoman by her husband, a university professor in Herat, is a symbol of this inhuman violence that has strongly affected people who care for and struggle to protect human rights and human values.

The United Nations condemned the killing as symptom of continuing violence against Afghan women four years after the fall of the Taliban. Afghanistan is a place that is rich in poetic tradition where the common people love to hear or read poems and often know quite a few by heart. The Sufi poet Rumi was from a village in what is now Afghanistan. Nadia risked torture, imprisonment, perhaps even death to study literature and write poetry in secret under the Taliban. She was becoming well known, especially in literary circles. She was widely praised for her first book of poems, titled "Gule Dudi," or "Dark Flower." A tip of the hat to Mah-mag for the translation of one of Nadia's haunting poems:

A poem by: Nadia Anjuman
Translated by: Mahnaz Badihian



No desire to open my mouth
What should I sing of...?
Me, who is hated by life,
No difference to sing or not to sing.
Why should I talk of sweetness?
When I feel bitterness.
Oh, the oppressors feast
Knocked my mouth.
I have no companion in life
Who can I be sweet for?
No difference to say, to laugh,
To die, to be.
Me and my strained solitude.
With sorrow and sadness.
I was borne for nothingness.
My mouth should be sealed.
Oh my heart, you know it is spring
And time to celebrate.
What should I do with a trapped wing?
Which does not let me fly.
I have been silent for too long,
But I never forget the melody,
Since every moment I whisper
The songs from my heart,
Reminding myself of
A day I will break the cage.
Fly from This solitude
And sing like a melancholic.
I am not a weak poplar tree
To be shaken By any wind.
I am an Afghan woman,
Makes sense to moan always.

There is a webpage dedicated to Nadia here.

I have seen no updates on the murder case, and I wonder if any will be forthcoming. Nadia's words call out for justice, in her own case and in the case of all women in Afghanistan today. It is said that terror will always be present where democracy fails to exist. If that is true, what can we say of the new "democracy" in Afghanistan? If women continue to be terrorized in the quiet places beyond the sounds of the warlords' guns and bombs, how has democracy succeeded?

When we hear our President speaking about "bringing terrorists to justice," we have to ask ourselves - what happens to the terrorists who are culturally empowered to abuse women?


_____________

In other women's news, Ritu Sharma, president and co-founder of the Women's Edge Coalition, a Washington-based advocate for the world's poorest women, explains why she believes that investing in women and giving them a prominent voice and role in reconstruction is the most effective way to help a community recover from natural disasters.

At the Women's Edge Coalition website, there are updates on the Tsunami recovery.

Abramoff Fallout Will Hurt Republicans

Abramoff Fallout Will Hurt Republicans

From William Rivers Pitt [Truthout]:

According to campaign donation information gathered by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, the following officeholders and candidates have received political donations from Abramoff since 2000:

Tom DeLay (R-Texas). John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). Frank A. LoBiondo (R-NJ). Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). John Ensign (R-Nev.). Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). Charles H. Taylor (R-NC). Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Mark Foley (R-Fla.). Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). Christopher S. "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.). Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). Doug Ose (R-Calif.). Ernest J. Istook (R-Okla.). George R. Nethercutt Jr. (R-Wash.). Jim Bunning (R-Ky.). Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). Dan Burton (R-Ind.). Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Suzanne Terrell (R-La.). Rob Simmons (R-Conn.). Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.). Connie Morella (R-Md.). Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.). James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.). James M. Talent (R-Mo.). John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.). John Thune (R-SD). Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.). Bob Smith (R-Fla.). Bob Ney (R-Ohio). CL. "Butch" Otter (R-Idaho). Carolyn W. Grant (R-NC). Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.). Elizabeth Dole (R-NC). Heather Wilson (R-NM). J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.). Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). James V. Hansen (R-Utah). John Cornyn (R-Texas). Kimo Kaloi (R-Hawaii). Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.). Mike Ferguson (R-NJ). Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). Ralph Regula (R-Ohio). Ric Keller (R-Fla.). Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Dave Camp (R-Mich.). Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). Tom Young (R-Ala.). Bill Janklow (R-SD). Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.). Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.). William L. Gormley (R-NJ). Bill McCollum (R-Fla.). Bill Redmond (R-NM). Bob Riley (R-Ala.). Claude B. Hutchison Jr. (R-Calif.). Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.). Francis E. Flotron (R-Mo.). George Allen (R-Va.). Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-NC). Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Bob Smith (R-Fla.). Joe Pitts (R-PA). Charles H. Taylor (R-NC). Bob Ehrlich (R-Md.). Charles R. Gerow (R-Pa.). Ed Royce (R-Calif.). Elia Vincent Pirozzi (R-Calif.). Jerry Weller (R-Ill.). Mark Emerson (R-Utah). Tom Davis (R-Va.). Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).

Also:

Americans for a Republican Majority, Leadership PAC of Tom DeLay (R-Texas). Republican Majority Fund, Leadership PAC of Don Nickles (R-Okla.). Keep Our Majority PAC, Leadership PAC of Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Leadership PAC, Leadership PAC of Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio). Rely on Your Beliefs, Leadership PAC of Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Friends of the Big Sky, Leadership PAC of Conrad Burns (R-Mont.). Senate Victory Fund, Leadership PAC of Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). American Liberty PAC, Leadership PAC of Bob Ney (R-Ohio). Battle Born PAC, Leadership PAC of John Ensign (R-Nev.). Fund for a Free Market America, Leadership PAC of Phil Crane (R-Ill.). Team PAC, Leadership PAC of J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.). The Republican Party of New Jersey.

Also:

George W. Bush (R).

Notice anything similar? Each and every name listed, each and every PAC, has an (R) after it. The Center for Responsive Politics does not have one Democrat - not one - listed as having received a donation from Jack Abramoff.

Sharon Suffers Stroke, Olmert Acting PM of Israel

Sharon Suffers Stroke, Olmert Acting PM of Israel

My prayers go out to Israel's leader Ariel Sharon and his family. The Prime Minister suffered a massive stroke yesterday. Reuters has offered some facts on Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert. One of the most relevant is the fact that although he served as a legislator for the right wing party Likud in the 1990s, Olmert broke with more hardline faction colleagues by backing a leftist proposal for Palestinian self-rule. He quit Likud last November to form the more centrist Kadima Party.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that, with Sharon sidelined (perhaps permanently), Israel faces a political vacuum.

Tar Heel Tavern #45

Tar Heel Tavern #45

Justin has a great new edition of the Tar Heel Tavern at The View From the Cheap Seats for your viewing. It's the 45th Edition - and the first for the new year.

In other carnival news, the third eition of the Carnival of the Liberals at Science and Politics.

Bush and the Future of Iraq

Bush and the Future of Iraq

President Bush gave a fairly convincing speech today (a rarity as far as I'm concerned), telling us what we can expect this year in Iraq. As things get incredibly messy in Iraq, it sounds as if Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who should have been fired years ago) is finally giving the Generals some serious consideration (2100+ troop's lives too late). Here is what we're told to expect:

- fewer US troops as we move through 2006 (not a surprise)
- an increase in number of US forces dedicated to training Iraqi security forces
- an increase in our support of intelligence capabilities
- police training led by Lt. General Martin Dempsey
- embedded coalition troops in Iraqi police units (called transition teams)

The President says he's disturbed by stories about the sectarian militias in Iraq, as well he should be. They're making his success in Iraq - along with his positive Presidential legacy - an impossibility at the present time.

I have recommended a greater call for international police-training support and an actual coalition of international police forces that will replace US armed forces. The sooner our troops are removed as an occupying force in Iraq, the sooner security will be possible for everyday Iraqis. I do not believe that we can reach true success in Iraq alone, and while I trust Lt. General Dempsey to do the best job that he can in training police forces, I realize that he's playing with fire. He's in charge of training police officers who will have some culturally instilled differences from ours. We are empowering those who consider what we see as human rights abuses as an acceptable option. I know General Dempsey will face a lot of violent (and possibly insurmountable) opposition based on organic hatred between Iraqi sects. He will need the support of the international community (especially from Middle Eastern nations) or Iraq is going to be a place where the purple-fingered freedom-seekers will be not able to live in peace.

If President Bush cares about his legacy, he'd best secure it with an assurance of success without worrying about his neoconservative cheerleaders. As Harvard's Stephen Walt recently said, "Realism says one should isolate one’s enemies while maximizing allied support, and a foreign policy that is doing the exact opposite is hardly in the U.S. national interest."

If the President wants to gain our confidence, he should start by firing Donald Rumsfeld, because Rumsfeld has misled him (and all of us) every step of the way. The President should begin listening to people who really care about what happens to the people of Iraq. If Iraq continues to descend into violent chaos, Bush's last rationale for war (after all others have factually crumbled) will fall flat on its face. I sensed some sincerity in Bush's statements this morning but I believe that he needs to rethink his strategy. I do think he's getting closer - although I don't think any of us will ever get over the one fact that will haunt the historic retelling of the Iraq war, especially if the Iraq experiment fails:

The war was never necessary.

Meanwhile, there are potentially destructive forces in this world that move independently because we have forgotten to place importance on international respect.

I keep asking myself this question:

How much money did certain Americans make off the back of this unnecessary war?

There is a child dying every few seconds in this world because of a poverty for which our nation has been particularly stingy - yet we pay dearly in tax dollars for an unnecessary war. Worse, someone was enriched. I wonder how the creeps who made tons of money from this war of option can live with themselves. Bush said "We lost some really good folks" this year in Iraq - and he's right.

Who was enriched by the death of good folks?

12 Coal Miners and False News

And as they work beneath the clay,
With heads bowed down these miners pray,
That God will hear them up above
And send them safely to the ones they love.


Miner Folk Art by Frank "Wyso" Wysochansky of Northeastern PA, whose father died in the coal mines

Now if this cannot come to pass,
And he must pay the price at last.
The miner leaves his last demand
Keep my child safe above the land.

- A Coal Miner's Prayer
by John & Millie Quann


12 Coal Miners and False News

I can't begin to express my sorrow over the news I got this morning. I went to bed last night with the false belief that 12 miners had survived after the disaster in Tallmansville, West Virginia. Upon awakening, a friend who knew why I was especially concerned about the welfare of the miners gave me the awful news - and I thought he was joking. All the hype I'd heard on the cable news networks last night reminded me of what self-righteous pundits often accuse bloggers of doing - running wild with rumor and misinformation. I was angry to have been misinformed. My heart dropped to my feet for the families.


Petition for a US Postage Stamp dedicated to the Coal Miner

I understand the sorrow of a mining family, for I have shed the tears over a miner's life gone too soon. My grandfather was a miner in the anthracite coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania, and he was another statistic of the deathly toll that the mines take on hard-working men. Black lung disease took him before he had a chance to see his grandchildren grow to adulthood. He, of all people, would have wanted to be here to see us. He is the one who struggled to see that my generation would never have to look at the shafts of the mines. A sculpture of a coal miner by the American folk artist Frank "Wyso" Wysochansky, who did the sketch you see above, sits on my father's bookcase in his home office. Wyso had given the sculpture to one of my great aunts as a gift when he was a very young man. There is an exhibition of Wyso's work currently being shown at the Seigel Gallery, Iacocca Hall at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. It runs through February.

The miner does the most dangerous of jobs - and he does it every workday. I heard someone on a cable news network calling the lone survivor a hero. If he is a hero, every coal miner is a hero, whether or not he's lived through a blast. If we see these men as heroes, why don't we get behind them and push for better safety regulations for them? Why is it that we only call them heroes when they die - or when they survive a horrendous accident? Why does Republican government resist the miners' union organizing?

"The false news about survivors spread quickly after people overheard cell phone calls.."

I hear the media starting to play the blame game for the confusion last night. In some way, I believe they are responsible for hyping what turned out to be nothing more than rumor based on some ringing church bells. There was undoubtedly a lack of appropriate gravitas before stories of survivors were confirmed - a decided lack of professionalism - - which I imagine will be a story in and of itself. I'm sure there will be tiresome navel-gazing from the media as they backtrack from embarrassment.