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Weekend Open Thread

We didn't do an open thread yet this week, so here you go. What are you thinking about or reading that's of interest today?

And in the news, two of the three kidnapped soldiers in Iraq may be alive. One is believed to have been killed.

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    Women In Iraq (5.00 / 3) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat May 19, 2007 at 01:41:21 PM EST
    A brief historical view of women's rights in Iraq.

    Leila, a woman's rights activists still living in Iraq, said: "Initially many of us were very hopeful. We did not like foreign soldiers on our streets, but we were happy Saddam was gone. Once the general chaos and the looting settled down a bit, women were the first to get organised. Women doctors and lawyers started to offer free services to women. We started to discuss political issues and tried to lobby the American and British forces. But the Americans sent people to Iraq whose attitude was: 'We don't deal with women.'" [Presidential envoy Paul] Bremer was one. Iraqi women managed to get a woman's quota despite the Americans who opposed it. Their idea of women's issues was to organise big meetings and conferences and build modern women's centres. Do you think anyone went to visit these centres?".....

    .....It isn't a surprise that many of the women I interviewed remember the past nostalgically.

    Nadje Sadig al-Ali

    Honor-killing stonings now on CNN (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by Dadler on Sat May 19, 2007 at 02:43:45 PM EST
    CNN, via cooksandliars, is airing footage of a woman being stoned to death in Iraq.

    Disturbing beyond measure.  Be warned.

    And our violence there is helping this HOW???

    Parent

    RE: And our violence there is helping this HOW??? (5.00 / 3) (#3)
    by Edger on Sat May 19, 2007 at 04:47:33 PM EST
    It's not. Nearly a million people have died unnecessarily in Iraq as a direct consequence of the invasion and occupation. About three quarters of that number have been children and women.

    But reverse the question you asked to "How is CNN airing this helping to cause the violence in Iraq" and maybe things become a little clearer.

    Demonization propaganda designed to quiet the conscience of the warmongers and enable them to stay in denial about the immorality of the occupation?

    Parent

    Yep, Yep and Yep (5.00 / 3) (#4)
    by Dadler on Sat May 19, 2007 at 06:35:44 PM EST
    The fact that they air THIS and not the actual WAR is enough to make you vomit.  

    Parent
    What's even more disturbing is when I post (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by Edger on Sat May 19, 2007 at 06:44:21 PM EST
    a link to a video like this one: Video: IRAQ - What Television Censors Won't Show You,  and in 7 hours only one person clicks it and stays to watch a 49 minute video about the actual war.

    Stays for 16 seconds........

    Parent

    Maybe because its an old video.... (none / 0) (#44)
    by Aaron on Sun May 20, 2007 at 09:57:01 PM EST
    ...that everybody has seen.

    Parent
    How would they know if they don't click? (none / 0) (#45)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:13:16 PM EST
    I'm watching it now, (5.00 / 1) (#46)
    by Aaron on Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:24:05 PM EST
    I haven't seen this story, but I've seen most of these Iraq clips here and there.  As I said a few days ago, people need to be made to watch, forcibly if necessary.  And the soldiers on operational duty should have journalists with them everywhere across Iraq, but that isn't happening.  

    That's why all the right wingers in America and on the blog sphere can sit safe and comfortable in their living rooms and pretend, and continue to live in a dream world.  I'm glad to see someone posting this stuff.  But I guess you realize now that people don't want to watch, it's just easier not to.

    Parent

    I know. (none / 0) (#47)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:29:20 PM EST
    I posted the link to emphasize that. People rarely click links to anything, really.

    Parent
    Not to mention (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by squeaky on Sat May 19, 2007 at 06:45:03 PM EST
    That they fail to point out that it is happening because of our occupation, and during our watch.


    Parent
    Back in February, (5.00 / 2) (#7)
    by Edger on Sat May 19, 2007 at 07:09:43 PM EST
    two days after Riverbend wrote about the rape of Sabrine al-Janabi, Yifat Susskind wrote an article titled Violating Iraqi Women at TomPainedotCom:
    According to Iraqi human rights advocate and writer Haifa Zangana, the first question asked of female detainees in Iraq is, "Are you Sunni or Shia?" The second is, "Are you a virgin?"
    ...
    It's no surprise that we're hearing allegations of rape against the Iraqi National Police, considering who trained them. DynCorp, the private contractor that the Bush Administration hired to prepare Iraq's new police force for duty, has an ugly record of violence against women. The company was contracted by the federal government in the 1990s to train police in the Balkans. Human Rights Watch reports that DynCorp employees were found to have systematically committed sex crimes against women, including "owning" young women as slaves. One DynCorp site supervisor videotaped himself raping two women. Despite evidence, the contractors never faced criminal charges.

    Contrary to its rhetoric and its international legal obligations, the Bush Administration has refused to protect women's rights in Iraq. In fact, it has decisively traded women's rights for cooperation from the Islamists it has helped boost to power. Torture of women in detention is one symptom of this broader crisis.


    Parent
    liddy leary and thompson (5.00 / 3) (#8)
    by conchita on Sat May 19, 2007 at 09:51:16 PM EST
    seems almost inappropriate but please allow me to interject what nearly approximates a note of levity.

    great piece by joe bageant "Death by Digitalized Celebrity".

    favorite hunter quote:

    For a moment then, he became evasive, pensive. After a while he said, "Writing politics is not like it used to be. Even covering a war has no kick. It's like writers are being ordered back to cover the farm teams. Some new kind of rot is creeping into the scene. Something more dangerous than Nixon ever was.

    liddy on education
    Americans are becoming increasingly stupid. The greatest tragedy of our time is the disintegration of the public education system in this country. Even if half the young people they are turning out were geniuses, they can't communicate or write well enough to be effective.

    leary's response, winking
    Gordon wants to go back to the days when only 10 percent of Americans could go to college. Writing is a hieroglyphic art these days. And besides, only 10 percent of people are genetically wired, fired and inspired to do it. That makes it an elitist skill. Computers are going to replace hieroglyphics text as communication. Computers will be THE drug of the future.

    and there's more, much more.  bageant at his best.

    Bageant (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by Alien Abductee on Sun May 20, 2007 at 03:35:47 AM EST
    is just great. I've been rummaging through his site lately. My favorite of his: Poor, White and Pissed.

    Parent
    yes (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by conchita on Sun May 20, 2007 at 09:18:29 AM EST
    i read that one too, and it lurks in the back of my mind.  dispatch from a chinese landfill is my favorite of those i've read.  he is just the right mix of understanding, appreciation, irony, and blaspheme.  

    Parent
    Yep (5.00 / 1) (#35)
    by Alien Abductee on Sun May 20, 2007 at 06:28:52 PM EST
    At this end of the electronics Silk Road we are prisoners of consumption, rather like those caged French geese that are force fed corn so as to produce fatty livers for pate.

    I hope his move out of the country keeps him from ending up like HST.

    Parent

    From tomorrows Sunday Times (5.00 / 2) (#9)
    by Edger on Sat May 19, 2007 at 10:23:49 PM EST
    Sarah Baxter, May 20, 2007
    Decline and fall of the neocons
    Paul Wolfowitz's departure from the World Bank signals the end of an ideological era in Washington
    If Bush and Dick Cheney, his vice-president, are the last men standing with responsibility for the Iraq war it is only because they are protected by their four-year terms of office. One former Bush stalwart told me: "If we had a parliamentary system, Bush would have lost a vote of confidence and have resigned by now."

    Away from the Rose Garden the funeral cortege for the fundamentalist Rev Jerry Falwell was being assembled in the heart of Bush country in Lynchburg, Virginia. The portly 73-year-old televangelist had done his utmost to assemble the coalition of conservative Christians that went on to provide Bush with two presidential victories. Now he is dead and the government sustained by his followers is looking more and more like a corpse.

    The writer Christopher Hitchens, a friend of Wolfowitz and foe of Falwell, says: "The main noise in Washington right now is that of collapsing scenery. The Republican party is in total disarray. They've been dropping their most intelligent people over the side while the presidential candidates are all outbidding each other to be nice about the revolting carcass of Falwell."
    ...
    Gonzales has been under pressure to resign even longer than Wolfowitz, but he has not gone yet. If he goes, the air may go out of the Bush administration. When the president can no longer save his friends, there will be nobody left to save but himself.

    It's all over but the cr....

    Never mind, forget that last bit.

    edger (1.00 / 1) (#13)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 08:15:46 AM EST
    One former Bush stalwart told me: "If we had a parliamentary system, Bush would have lost a vote of confidence and have resigned by now."

    And if we had some had ham we'd have some ham and eggs if we had some eggs.

    Parent

    Defunding Iraq: Triangulation and Strangulation (5.00 / 1) (#19)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 12:44:46 PM EST
    Dems Driving Triangulation "Over the Dead Bodies" of the Progressive Movement
    ..."triangulation" in politics means a set of leaders trying joining with their opponents to pass measures that run counter to those leaders' own supporters.
    ...
    Can congressional leaders can pull the same move? Unfortunately, we're going to find out very soon, as congressional Democratic leaders are very clearly attempting to triangulate against their own party on the three issues the party ran on to win Election 2006.
    ...
    IRAQ - POTENTIAL TRIANGULATION TO KEEP THE WAR GOING

    Finally, Iraq - the big issue that helped Democrats win in 2006. The Associated Press reports that congressional Democratic leaders may be backing away from using their power to oppose the war, floating the possibility of an Iraq War supplemental bill that "would allow the president to waive compliance with a deadline for troop withdrawals." The New York Times says that the "likelihood that any final agreement will specify no withdrawal date for American troops from Iraq raised the possibility that antiwar Democrats will not support it, particularly in the House, and that the measure will need substantial Republican support to pass."
    ...
    Thus, we get Democratic leaders who just months after election to the majority are attempting to triangulate against their own party and the progressive movement. That this strategy helped destroy the progressive agenda, the Democratic Party, and Democrats' electoral prospects for the better part of a decade seems of no concern to the people trying to perform these acrobatics - all they seem to be focused on is bringing a smile to David Broder's face and a truckload of Wall Street cash to their campaign coffers.

    What's wrong with this picture? People who wouldn't add their voices to calls for defunding (over the dead bodies piling up in Iraq) have been watching this happen for months. NOW they want to pretend they were supporting defunding?

    It's nice that there are welll known (none / 0) (#21)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 01:20:54 PM EST
    and prolific authors out there that expose with their writing how cold and dirty a game political triangulation and backstabbing are...

    Parent
    Padilla: Terror Training Camps Vs Miltary Training (5.00 / 1) (#25)
    by leighm on Sun May 20, 2007 at 03:10:51 PM EST
    I followed the story of the ice cream vendor & his son from Lodi California who were on trial for plotting terrorist acts, and who had gone to a training camp in ...Pakistan, I believe...

    The testimony indicated that they were taught to use stilts (for the marshes of the Iraq/Iran border no doubt.)

    They aren't military camps.
    They aren't terrorist camps.
    They're circus camps.

    Unfortunately, it seems that the 'circus' has come to town and we are still creating enemies faster than we can kill them.


    Go Jimmy Carter (none / 0) (#10)
    by bx58 on Sun May 20, 2007 at 12:21:44 AM EST
    Now all we have to do is get his father and Bill Clinton to join in the condemnation.

    Even odds on who will do it first.

    Done. (none / 0) (#12)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 05:59:46 AM EST
    Carter??? (none / 0) (#15)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:43:12 AM EST
    Yeah, the guy who just wrote a book that got this response:

    Stein was the first executive director of the Carter Center, and he is now the director of the university's Middle East Research Program and of the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel. Carter and Stein co-wrote a book in 1984 called "The Blood of Abraham." Stein said he was present in the room, as well, during a number of events recollected in Carter's new book, and his notes show "little similarity to points claimed in the book. Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information"

    Link

    Carter?? Yeah the guy who made us all understand the meaning of stagflation and the joys of 16% home mortage interst rates...

    Carter?? Yeah the guy whose foreign policy ran the Shaw of Iran out of the country and let the Terrorists in. Worse, his tweedle dee tweedle dum response to the take over of our embassy set the stage for what terrorists could expect from the US
    and led directly to 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and  the ticking nuclear confrontation that is just months away.

    Carter?? Yeah. I really value what he has to say.
    Tell us more, oh demigod of the Left.

    Inside out, upside and backwards still, huh? (none / 0) (#16)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 10:48:38 AM EST
    The Shah WAS the terrorist, jim.

    Parent
    Heh (1.00 / 1) (#22)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 01:23:40 PM EST
    I see your inability to recognize terrorists is a long standing problem... But I had no idea it went back to 1979.

    Posted by edger at December 4, 2005 08:12 AM

    "Insurgents don't use car bombs to kill civilians or give booby trapped dolls to children. That is terrorist work, edgey."(quoted from my previous comment)

    That is not "terrorist work" in the way you try to twist it to mean, at all. It is the work of the Iraqi people - the very people BushCo thought would throw flowers - fighting to kick the US out of Iraq":




    Parent
    History, jim (none / 0) (#23)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 01:37:03 PM EST
    Just think how hard it would be for you to ignore it if it didn't exist.
    Operation Ajax was hatched--the brainchild of the CIA's Middle East chief, Kermit Roosevelt, who directed it from Tehran.
    ...
    The covert operation began, appropriately enough, with assurances to Mossadegh from the U.S. ambassador, Loy Henderson, that the United States did not plan to intervene in Iran's internal affairs. The operation then filled the streets of Tehran with mobs of people--many of them thugs-- who were loyal to the shah or who had been recipients of CIA largess.
    ...
    In succeeding years the United States regarded the shah as a key ally in the Middle East and provided his repressive and corrupt government with billions of dollars in aid and arms.

    The restoration of the shah to the Peacock Throne engendered immense hostility toward the United States and had cataclysmic consequences. The revolutionary torrent that built up was ultimately too much for even the United States to handle. By the late 1970s the shah and his poor record on human rights had become so repugnant to the State Department under Cyrus Vance that almost any alternative was deemed preferable to the shah's rule. But the shah had his defenders at the Pentagon and on the National Security Council

    Link

    Parent
    edger (1.00 / 1) (#26)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 03:21:53 PM EST
    So, thanks for making my point that Carter ran off an ally and fathered the current middle east mess.

    Parent
    edger (1.00 / 1) (#27)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 03:25:07 PM EST
    BTW - You do realize, don't you, that on one hand you are arguing for running off those you consider tyrants, and on the other not bothering those we know are tyrants and terrorist enablers.

    Does this mean that you supported Saddam as a just and leigitimate ruler??

    Remember. He took power in a coup and never had a legitimate election his whole life.

    Strange bedfellows you sleep with, eh??

    Parent

    Keep going jim. (none / 0) (#28)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 03:30:15 PM EST
    You're babbling incoherently now.

    That helps.

    Parent

    Facts are facts (none / 0) (#36)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 07:50:41 PM EST
    How come you always run off complaining???

    Facts are facts, edger.

    Parent

    DA (1.00 / 1) (#41)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 09:11:25 PM EST
    I had no problem with the Shah, or Saddam.. I accepted them both for what they were.

    It is you and other minions of the Left who love those who hate the west and hate those who do not.

    Intellectual honesty is not your strng point.

    Parent

    It's an interesting coincidence (none / 0) (#24)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 02:32:30 PM EST
    that Pahlavi rhymes with Chalabi.

    Helps keep the siren song sounding good to mesmerize the dancers.

    Probably means nothing otherwise....

    Parent

    Co-Opting the peace/antiwar movement (none / 0) (#17)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 11:02:16 AM EST
    How the media plays the manipulation game and how antiwar activists can get sucked into the game if not very careful.

    David Swanson has a great article on this game at Let's Try Democracy this morning.

    What to watch out for:

    Peace Movement Not So Good With Media or Elections

    The corporate media in the United States will not allow a real peace candidate any time or substantive or respectful coverage. It will slander and mock and, above all, ignore. Then it will find people outside the media to quote as saying that they don't believe the candidate is "viable." The ideal spokespeople to make this announcement will be those perceived to agree with the peace candidate - that is, leaders of the peace movement. Then the story will be made to look like the media is reporting on who the public calls "viable," rather than determining who is viable and imposing that on the public. This is basic, fundamental electoral manufacturing of consent. And yet, every election, the peace movement plays along.

    In this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a CODE PINK activist is quoted as follows:

    "'Dennis is saying all the right things, but I just worry that he isn't getting the exposure that he needs and that he is not being taken seriously,' said [Rosalie] Yelen. She hasn't settled on a candidate to support but says she likes former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' stance on poverty."

    To her credit, Yelen explained that the media was the problem; but the media was writing the article and went on to clarify that Kucinich was the problem. The reporter, Sabrina Earon, then quotes a couple of "experts" arguing that because Kucinich is behind in the polls he is a loser and will stay behind in the polls.

    Then a peace activist is used as a perfect pawn to express exactly what the media wants expressed, namely that voters must choose between what they really want (even when it is an overwhelming majority position) and what's "viable," even when it is the position of a dwindling minority:



    Blue paradise state (none / 0) (#18)
    by roy on Sun May 20, 2007 at 12:32:16 PM EST
    Texas is hot, so I'm moving to Oregon.  To my tastes, Portland is modern liberalism's either (depending on who I've read lately) crowning or least screwed up accomplishment.  Should be an interesting culture shock either way.  I'll have to learn to take pride in spending other people's money.

    Thriving economy, healthy and naturalistic environment, educated population, cheap excellent seafood, mountains, ocean, and (nearby in Washington) an active volcano.  Also, more microbreweries than any other city in America.

    Between packing my gear, spending time with my family before leaving The South, and the 2000 mile road trip with iffy 'net access, I'll be pretty much off y'all's radar for a few weeks.  If somebody could dwell on trivial technicalities in my absence, I'd appreciate it.

    roy (none / 0) (#20)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun May 20, 2007 at 01:17:27 PM EST
    Also it has sky high taxes and terrible weather for most of the year.

    How to do a weather forecast in Portland.

    If you can not see Mt Hood it is raining.

    If you can see Mt. Hood it is going to rain.

    Best of luck. It will be intersting to see how someone with your libertarian leanings reacts.

    BTW - Here is question for you:

    Do you know the difference between east Europe and Portland??

    Ans: There are no communists left in east europe.

    Parent

    Plenty to argue about while stuck indoors (none / 0) (#42)
    by roy on Sun May 20, 2007 at 09:19:32 PM EST
    Good Luck Roy....n/t (none / 0) (#33)
    by kdog on Sun May 20, 2007 at 05:51:01 PM EST
    Traitor! (none / 0) (#43)
    by Gabriel Malor on Sun May 20, 2007 at 09:28:46 PM EST
    Leaving Texas! How could you?!?

    Okay, so I left too (but I have every intention of returning). Good luck with the move!

    Parent

    Check out today's article on AP's exculsive (none / 0) (#29)
    by oculus on Sun May 20, 2007 at 04:10:15 PM EST
    access to records of conditions of the concentration camps and internees after the Allied liberation.  Interesting and very disburbing.



    my dear, oculus, (none / 0) (#30)
    by conchita on Sun May 20, 2007 at 04:24:04 PM EST
    might you have a link?  i would like to read this.

    Parent
    Believe me, I've tried. (none / 0) (#31)
    by oculus on Sun May 20, 2007 at 04:33:53 PM EST
    Check Newsday AP and Yahoo news.  

    Parent
    I imagine (none / 0) (#32)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 04:37:01 PM EST
    he meant this one, conchita.

    Nazi Archive Reveals Panorama of Misery
    The Associated Press, Sunday, May 20, 2007


    Parent

    thanks, edger :-) (none / 0) (#37)
    by conchita on Sun May 20, 2007 at 08:24:13 PM EST
    s/he did. Thanks. (5.00 / 1) (#38)
    by oculus on Sun May 20, 2007 at 08:37:39 PM EST
    habit... bad one too. (none / 0) (#40)
    by Edger on Sun May 20, 2007 at 08:57:40 PM EST
    :-0

    Parent
    A Day in the LIfe..... (none / 0) (#34)
    by kdog on Sun May 20, 2007 at 05:57:13 PM EST
    I read the NY Daily News today, oh boy....

    Cops under investigation in Mt. Kisco for beating some poor slob to death and leaving him on the side of the road.

    Two NYPD cops busted for trying to hold up a drug dealer in New Jersey...while claiming to be investigating terrorism.

    Poor slob gets his apartment raided in Brooklyn...cops find no drugs, blame bad informant.  Poor slob is handcuffed in his underwear for over an hour, claims 2 grand went missing in the search.

    Unarmed man gunned down in the Bronx during a traffic stop.  Guy may have been drunk and left the car in gear, bumped the officer and he opened fire.

    Dontcha just love authoritarianism....