4/16/2013

on pruning the friendship tree

i prune friends.

i used to deny it.

but i really do.

that's 1 of the things about getting to be a certain age, you can can see your own patterns.

and when some 1 is no use to me, i prune them out of my life.

what makes me prune?

when we can no longer talk.

when all that will happen is we will scream and yell.

i wrote a friend about the nonsense the green party is pulling.

the friend forwarded it to some of our other friends.  that's fine.  that doesn't bother me.

but 1 of them, we'll call her millie feels the need to reply:

 

What the hell is your point, you ask?   We have the attention span of a flea.  We have a black President.  In my day no one believed it was possible.  Women come second, because they are women.  It is a Patriarchal Society and will be, until a black, Jewish, Lesbian woman becomes President.


that's only some of her e-mail. 

1st off, millie, you damn idiot, if the president was a lesbian, she wouldn't need to be a 'lesbian woman.'  2nd off, the e-mail was about gender.  millie pops in that paragraph and goes on for 7 more about race.

i am so sick of people who do not think gender is a topic worthy of discussion and that you must bring in the plight of black males in prison - as millie did (millie is white for any who wonder) - to make it okay to talk about gender.

i also don't appreciate millie telling me that she's sick of women without "balls."

i'm sorry but i don't play that game.

i'm a woman.  i don't have balls.  nor do i want them.

nor do i see testicles as a sign of strength.

i also don't need to hear war stories.

war stories?

millie used to be a raging drunk and she wants to go off in the middle of her e-mail about some 80s drunken episode where some woman said something about feminism and she gets lost with whatever point as she goes on and on about how she drank for 2 days straight and ended up in the er.

i'm sure she thinks she's funny and clever. 

i just read it and thought, 'i've never introduced her to my daughter.'  and i haven't.  i haven't seen her in ten years, at least.  we're to the point now where we do christmas cards and we do an e-mail maybe twice a year.

but i'm done with all of that.

i'm not in the mood.  and as i realize that i would never introduce her to my daughter, i realize that i don't want her in my life anymore.

so i'm pruning her.

and that's why i prune.  i don't set out to.  and i have many friends that have been friends for life.  but most of those are high school or college (elaine and c.i. are college).

a lot of friends i have i made through my career.  and some - this is p.r. - really weren't great people.  millie was fun in the 80s.  i could and did party with her.  if it helps, i'm clearly the 1 who changed. 


let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Tuesday, April 16, 2013.  Chaos and violence continue, silence on counter-insurgency continues, failure to speak on the topic fails both Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks, an Iraqi governor survives an assassination attempt, an Iraqi inspector general and his family flee in the face of arrest warrants, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is dismayed by the situation in Iraq, and more.

April 8th, WikiLeaks published 1.7 million US diplomatic documents covering 1973 to 1976.  Collin Gordinier (South Lyon East High School's East Edition) explains this release has become known as the "Kissinger Cables" after Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State in Richard Nixon's administration and then Gerald Ford's administration) and quotes Kissinger bragging, "I used to say [before the Freedom of Information Act], 'The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer'.  Now I'm afraid to say things like that."   The impact of the release was felt then -- one government had a public servant exposed as a spy, the son of a prime minister was in league with Big Business at the expense of his own country, the Vatican was found to be a massacre denier and more.  The impact continues to be felt this week.  Yesterday Marc Wells (WSWS) explored the Vatican aspect of the cables:


 On September 11, 1973, a CIA-backed coup led by general Pinochet overthrew the elected government of Socialist Party President Salvador Allende. In Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship, thousands of left-wing activists, students, trade unionists and anyone suspected of opposing Chilean and international capital were killed or disappeared by the regime. Hundreds of thousands were jailed and tortured, or sent into exile.
The names of these criminal state operations, such as "Operation Condor" or "The Caravan of Death" are forever embedded in the consciousness of Chilean workers. Pinochet's "struggle against Marxism" remains one of the most violent developments in the history of the 20th century.
The main goal of such struggle was to destroy the working class and its organizations, both physically and through the imposition of aggressive economic policies of privatization and deregulation. These created a model of enrichment by a small oligarchy for the following decades.
Many governments joined this "struggle," with the US leading the pack. President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger allocated $8 million for the campaign to destabilize Allende. While maintaining an appearance of liberal reforms and a more relaxed policy toward the USSR initiated by John XXIII, the Vatican, led by Pope Paul VI, lent support to the Chilean dictator.
In a cable dated October 18, 1973, Archbishop Giovanni Benelli, Vatican Deputy Secretary of State, denied the crimes committed by Pinochet's junta, expressing "his and Pope's grave concern over successful international leftist campaign to misconstrue completely realities of Chilean situation."
More precisely, the cable documents Benelli's view on the "exaggerated coverage of events as possibly greatest success of communist propaganda, and highlighted fact that even moderate and conservative circles seem quite disposed to believe grossest lies about Chilean junta's excesses."


Press Trust India used the cables Sunday to explore the relationship between Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Richard Nixon (whom Nixon called an "old witch").

Right before those documents were released, WikiLeaks released US cables from the last decade on Venezuela demonstrating how supposedly neutral NGO (supposed Non-Governmental Organizations) enlisted in the US government's war on the government of President Hugo Chavez. This week Ryan Mallett-Outtrim (Green Left) reported on those documents:

 The ultimate aims of the embassy were described by then-US ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield as "penetrating Chavez’s political base ... dividing Chavismo ... protecting vital US business ...[and] isolating Chavez internationally".
According to Brownfield, the "strategic objective" of developing opposition-aligned "civil society organizations[sic] ... represents the majority of USAID/OTI work in Venezuela".
However, among the dozens of groups mentioned in the document, the usual suspects of US interventionism also make appearances.
According to the document, OTI funded a Freedom House program in Venezuela with US$1.1 million, while Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) provided grants totalling $726,000 on behalf of OTI.
DAI has a long history of working to undermine governments that oppose US hegemony, and this isn't the only time its operations in Venezuela have raised questions.
In 2002, DAI worked with the National Endowment for Democracy to fund a right-wing propaganda campaign during the 2002 oil industry lockout that sought to bring down Chavez’s government.
The groups is now being sued by the family of a subcontractor who was jailed in 2009 while working in Cuba.
Alan Gross was working with a USAID initiative to install satellite communication systems for civil use, when he was arrested by Cuban authorities for "acts against the integrity of the state", and is now serving a 15-year prison term.
His wife, Judy Gross has accused DAI of misleading him, and failing to provide adequate training.


In related news, the US government is attempting to punish whistle blower Bradley Manning and to argue that because Osama bin Laden reportedly had access to information -- that the whole world had -- this demonstrates that Bradley was "aiding the enemy."  As the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times observed earlier this month, "In arguing that Manning aided the enemy, the government's case apparently will rest on the assertion that some WikiLeaks material made its way to a digital device found in the possession of Osama bin Laden. This is an ominously broad interpretation. By the government's logic, the New York Times could be accused of aiding the enemy if Bin Laden possessed a copy of the newspaper that included the WikiLeaks material it published."


Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks are forever entwined.  Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December. At the start of this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial. Bradley has yet to enter a plea. The court-martial was supposed to begin before the November 2012 election but it was postponed until after the election so that Barack wouldn't have to run on a record of his actual actions.  Independent.ie adds, "A court martial is set to be held in June at Ford Meade in Maryland, with supporters treating him as a hero, but opponents describing him as a traitor."  February 28th, Bradley admitted he leaked to WikiLeaks.  And why.


Bradley Manning:   In attempting to conduct counter-terrorism or CT and counter-insurgency COIN operations we became obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists and not being suspicious of and avoiding cooperation with our Host Nation partners, and ignoring the second and third order effects of accomplishing short-term goals and missions. I believe that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information contained within the CIDNE-I and CIDNE-A tables this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as [missed word] as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I also believed the detailed analysis of the data over a long period of time by different sectors of society might cause society to reevaluate the need or even the desire to even to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the people living in the effected environment everyday.


Counter-insurgency is war on a native population.  There's been confusion in the '00s because the US government wanted to sell it. Vietnam left counter-insurgency 'off the table' officially because it was publicly reputed.  When Reagan used it in the covert, dirty wars in Latin America in the eighties, it would be 'off the books.'  David Petraeus and others sought to rehabiliate it in the '00s.  That required a lot of money and a lot of greedy academia desperate for that money.  Harvard's Carr Center is only one of the many institutions with blood on their hands -- Sarah Sewall (aka Sarah Sewer) remains at the Carr Center while Samantha Power 'graduated' to the Barack Obama administration.   Sewall herself bragged at the end of 2007 that they could get a candidate to say whatever they wanted which Charlie Rose found very amusing as long as he and she didn't name the candidate (Barack).  Along with the liars of acadmeia there have been the supposed journalists of 'independent' media like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! who won't let counter-insurgency be mentioned unless its by CIA contractor Juan Cole.  As Ava and I noted last month, in (mis)covering the documentary James Steele: America's Mystery Man In Iraq  -- produced by BBC Arabic and the Guardian newspaper,  she insisted that the guest not use the term "counterinsurgency" and, at the end, when the guest did bring it up, Goodman immediately changed the subject.  She was fine with presenting violence in Iraq as caused by the US -- provided it could be presented as random.  But to actually note that it was a pattern and a plan was too much for Amy Goodman.  That's only surprising if you missed how she supported the Libyan War and has largely become a mouthpiece for the US government -- at least the CIA faction.  (If this is news to you, you haven't been paying attention and can start getting up to speed by reviewing Bruce Dixon's 2011 piece for Black Agenda Report: "Are Democracy Now!'s Libyan Correspondents Feeding Us the State Department and Pentagon Line on Libya?")

Counter-insurgency has been the least covered topic in the last ten years despite the US government utilization of it.  It's not been covered because there's no money in telling the truth.  Goody might lose some of her campus bookings where she hawks her latest bad clip job.  The Nation has published only one article on the issue that matters and they had to be shamed into publishing that.  The article is "Harvard's Humanitarian Hawks" and it's by Tom Hayden.  He published it as his own site first and only after Katrina and others were deluged with phone calls about why The Nation wasn't carrying that article did they suddenly show interest.

Instead, they prefer to offer piffle like the crap William R. Polk penned as an open letter to Barack where, in passing, he notes that the Pentagon Papers exposed counter-insurgency as a failure.  But he never condemns Barack's use of it in his open letter.  When I noted how little coverage there's been of counter-insurgency, from time to time, a friend will bring up Ann Jones.  To which I reply, "I was trying to be nice.'  Yes, Ann Jones did write about counter-insurgency in 2010: "Taking a page from Vietnam, they claim their hands are tied, while the enemy plays by its own rules.  Rightly or wrongly, this opinion is spreading fast among grieving soldiers as casualties mount.  It's also clear that even the lethal part of counterinsurgency isn't working."

A piece on counter-insurgency that uses terms like "rightly or wrongly," is cowardly.  She never calls it out.  The most she can muster is that it's not working. We've defended Ann many times here but I'm not going to defend her ethical cowardice.  Shame on you, Ann, you damn well know better.

 Some friends point to Peter Rothberg's piece which does liken it to torture.  It also spells it correctly: "counter-insurgency."  That's how it's been spelled for decades before the government decided to rebrand it KFC style.  And that's part of the reason we don't note Peter's piece.  He notes it's torture.  He's right.  But he wrote in 2004 and it was known to be used in Iraq or anywhere else at that time.  That's also why he spelled it correctly: he was writing of it historically.

Or they'll note a John Nichols piece that fails to illuminate what counter-insurgency is while also failing to condemn it.  Those aren't pieces that matter, those aren't pieces that show bravery.  Bradley Manning spoke out because what was going on in Iraq.  But various so-called 'independent' 'media' outlets don't want to have that conversation.

While we're on the subject of The Nation magazine, we need to note Greg Mitchell.  The never-ending joke failed to cover WikiLeaks in real time -- we did, we covered it here.  We covered the Iraq revelations and waited and waited for others to follow.  But it was 2010 and outside the video, no one gave a damn in independent media.  That's among the reasons that we laughed at Idiot Greg when he suddenly declared himself to be doing 'live blogging' on WikiLeaks.  You live blog an event -- a trial, a sports match.  Just blogging about WikiLeaks every day does not constitute live blogging -- other than you're blogging and you are, yes, alive.  What an idiot.

But, fine, when did Greg call out counter-insurgency?

The answer comes back: He didn't.

Strange because, even now, if you go to WikiLeak's home page you find this -- on the front page:

US (2009) US Special Forces counterinsurgency manual analysis

WikiLeaks released theForeign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004) document, the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID. FID operations are designed to prop up "friendly" governments facing popular revolution or guerilla insurgency. FID interventions are often covert or quasi-covert due to the unpopular nature of the governments being supported.
The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable




And if you use the link they provide, you'll be taken to a report by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange which opens:

 "[T]he psychological effectiveness of the CSDF concept starts by reversing the insurgent strategy of making the government the repressor.  It forces the insurgents to cross a critical threshold-that of attacking and killing the very class of people they are supposed to be liberating. -- US Special Forces doctrine obtained by Wikileaks"
So states the US Special Forces counterinsurgency manual obtained by Wikileaks, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004). The manual may be critically described as "what the US learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places". Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, history making.
The leaked manual, which has been verified with military sources, is the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID.
FID operations are designed to prop up "friendly" governments facing popular revolution or guerilla insurgency. FID interventions are often covert or quasi-covert due to the unpopular nature of the governments being supported ("In formulating a realistic policy for the use of advisors, the commander must carefully gauge the psychological climate of the HN [Host Nation] and the United States.")
The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable.


I'm sorry, Greg Mitchell, how can you set yourself as the go-to on all things WikiLeaks and refuse to explore counter-insurgency?  Answer: You can't.

William Boardman  covered the documentary last week -- here for Consortium News, here for Global Research.  Excerpt.


 The hour-long film explores the arc of American counterinsurgency brutality from Vietnam to Iraq, with stops along the way in El Salvador and Nicaragua. James Steele is now a retired U.S. colonel who first served in Vietnam as a company commander in 1968-69.  He later made his reputation as a military adviser in El Salvador, where he guided ruthless Salvadoran death squads in the 1980s.
When his country called again in 2003, he came out of retirement to train Iraqi police commandos in the bloodiest techniques of counterinsurgency that evolved into that country’s Shia-Sunni civil war that at its peak killed 3,000 people a month. Steele now lives in a gated golf community in Brian, Texas, and did not respond to requests for an interview for the documentary bearing his name.


 In June, Bradley faces military 'justice' and if you want to build support for Bradley, you start explaining what took place, what made him speak out.  Not random death squads, but a plan -- while the US government claimed to be in Iraq for 'democracy' -- to kill and suppress the Iraqi people.  This is what prompts outrage.  This is what drives Bradley to blow the whistle.  And this same counter-insurgency was being used in Afghanistan.

Do you stay silent or do you blow the whistle?

For Bradley, it was obvious, you blow the whistle about this program being utilized in two different countries and you do it because you are trying to protect millions of people in the process.

Do you stay silent or do you blow the whistle?

That's the question that so-called 'independent' media needs to ask itself.  They can start telling the truth about counter-insurgency or they can continue the lie. 


Will you stand up like Bradley Manning and call out counter-insurgency or will you cower like Anatol Lieven did in 2010, writing for The Nation, "How the Afghan Counterinsurgency Threatens Pakistan."  Bradley didn't decry a good or neutral policy that had a few bad impacts, he decried a criminal policy.

What Bradley did was very brave and very important.

We devalue the importance when we refuse to address counter-insurgency and we betray his bravery.

Not everyone's been a coward.   The national radio program Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights), was able to explore the topic of counter-insurgency with journalist Patrick Farrelly who was part of the  BBC Arabic and the Guardian newspaper investigative team behind the documentary  James Steele: America's Mystery Man In Iraq.  In their program that began airing March 18th, they explored the issues at length and why they mattered.  (For those who can't stream or who will not be helped by non-closed captioning streams, there are excerpts of the discussion in the March 18th snapshot, the March 20th snapshot and the March 22nd snapshot.)

Last week, Steve Nelson (US News and World Reports) quoted former US House Rep Ron Paul:

 "While President Obama was starting and expanding unconstitutional wars overseas, Bradley Manning, whose actions have caused exactly zero deaths, was shining light on the truth behind these wars," the former Republican presidential contender told U.S. News. "It's clear which individual has done more to promote peace."



Yesterday in Iraq, violence claimed "at least 55" lives (here and here).  Iraq Body Count counts 62 deaths.  Today was another bloody day.


Press TV lied today: "Looking at the situation in Iraq right now, it is very interesting to note that we are seeing the assassination of certain candidates that are standing up in the country's provincial elections.  Specifically those that are showing leanings toward the government which is currently in power in Baghdad." No, all 15 killed were Sunnis, not part of Nouri's Shi'ite coalition.  I said this morning that most were Iraqiya.  Three community members in Iraq e-mailed to state that the 15 were all under the umbrella of Iraqiya.  (Thank you for correcting me.)


Nouri's thugs aren't targeted, they're the ones doing the targeting.  Like the violence late today in Mosul.  Mosul is in Nineveh Province.  Nineveh and Anbar Province are not being allowed to participate in the elections.  There's been no real outcry by this decision by Nouri.  The reason is because Nouri's very unpopular in these provinces where protests have been going over 100 days against his regime.  Iraq is supposed to have a Independent High Electoral Commission.  If elections were to be postponed, it is the body that is granted the right to postpone.


In yet another power-grab, Nouri declared that the provinces wouldn't hold elections.  He did that as 'commander-in-chief.'  You know what kind of a government allows a 'commander-in-chief' to declare elections won't happen?  A junta, a military junta.  Even during the Civil War, US President Abraham Lincoln did not halt elections.


But Nouri did and he appears to have gotten away with it.  The residents of the two provinces are not happy with this.  The Governor of Nineveh has been very vocal in his displeasure.


Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi is a prominent critic of Nouri al-Maliki.  al-Nujaifi is Sunni, a member of Iraqiya and the brother of Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi.


Among the politicians targeted by Nouri in the last three years?  Atheel al-Nujaifi.  It wasn't all that long ago that Nouri was demanding that al-Nujaifi resign.  (al-Nujaifi refused.)




So it's no real surprise that today al-Nujaifi became the latest politician targeted for assassination.  NINA reports that he survived a bombing attempt on his convoy in Mosul today.  All Iraq News notes there were no "human casualties."  Alsumaria adds that an investigation has been launched.




In addition, National Iraqi News Agency reports a Kut car bombing has claimed 3 lives and left eight people injured, 1 generator worker was shot dead in Mosul,  1 police officer was shot dead in Mosul and his brother was left wounded, a Tarmiyah car bombing claimed 1 life and left five people injured, 2 Sahwa were shot dead in Sharqat and another two were left injured, a Hilla roadside bombing has left two police officers injured,  a Mussayyib roadside bombing claimed 2 lives and a a Jurf al-Sahker attack left 2 Iraqi soldiers dead. Alsumaria adds that 2 guards and 1 bystander were killed last night at a Baghdad polling station, a Falluja car bombing claimed 2 lives and an attack on a Babylon military headquarter base claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldiers and left six more injured.  All Iraq News notes that Major Wail Hashim Rashid, head of Salman Bak Internal Affairs, was assassinated by a sticky bombing in Salah il-Din Province.



As the security situation continues to worsen,  Mohammad Sabah (Al Mada) reports that members of Parliament -- including from Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc -- are saying Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to appear before Parliament to report on the security situation makes him a partner in terrorism.  Alsumaria reports that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi noted the Iraqi security forces are supposed to be better today than ever before and wonders why they aren't able to repel the attacks?


Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support."  If Barack hadn't given Nouri a second term via The Erbil Agreement, the prime minister of Iraq in 2010 would have had to have formed a full Cabinet -- no empty spaces.  Nouri's failure to form a full Cabinet means he's responsible for those empty positions.  That means any security failures -- including yesterday's -- rest squarely on his shoulders.


 Al Mada notes that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is said to be more worried about Iraq than ever before.  The violence and the various political crises have greatly alarmed al-Sistani.  Callum Wood (Philadelphia Church of God's Trumpet) notes that, in 2003, the Trumpet's Gerald Flurry predicted where the war would leave Iraq.  Wood observes, "The U.S.-backed [Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki originally promised a fair government, but has systematically destroyed his opponents.  Mr. Maliki has accused at least two key rivals of terrorism, driving them into exile.  Whether the claims are true or not, they leave the Shiite government with little to no viable contenders for power in the country."



In other news of violence, NINA reports that 3 men and 1 woman have been sentenced to death by the Criminal Court of Rusafa-Baghdad.  Apparently, coming in third for 2012 wasn't good enough [see Amnesty International released a new report [PDF format warning] " Death Sentences and Executions in 2012" ], Iraq wants to be number one in 2013 with executions.  Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reports that they executed 21 people today by hanging.


Meanwhile Saturday is when 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces get to vote.  Alsumaria notes some people will be voting in Nineveh -- as many as 2250 displaced persons.  Due to violence, they fled their own provinces.  While residents of Nineveh proper will not be voting, IDPs will be.

In labor news, Aref Mohammed (Reuters) reports, "Hundreds of local protesters blocked a main entrance of Iraq's giant southern West Qurna-2 oilfield on Tuesday, operated by Russia's LUKOIL, demanding jobs in a sign of the growing challenges facing foreign firms operating in the south."

Finally, Kitabat reports that arrest warrants have been issued against the Inspector General for the Ministry of Health and his wife; however, the two and their children have apparently fled Iraq.









 
 
 wbai
law and disorder radio
michael s. smith
heidi boghosian
michael ratner
cnn




Posted by at

4/15/2013

look what he's doing now

safety net scissorhands






that's from yesterday, Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Safety Net Scissorhands" and, get this, not only is barack trying to gut the safety net, he's gutting safety period.

dr. helen caldicott (global research) reports:



The White House has given final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication as soon as today, is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks what its proponents call a “new normal” for radiation exposure among the U.S population, according Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the radiation guides (called Protective Action Guides or PAGs) allow cleanup many times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These guides govern evacuations, shelter-in-place orders, food restrictions and other actions following a wide range of “radiological emergencies.” The Obama administration blocked a version of these PAGs from going into effect during its first days in office. The version given approval late last Friday is substantially similar to those proposed under Bush but duck some of the most controversial aspects:
In soil, the PAGs allow long-term public exposure to radiation in amounts as high as 2,000 millirems. This would, in effect, increase a longstanding 1 in 10,000 person cancer rate to a rate of 1 in 23 persons exposed over a 30-year period;
  • In water, the PAGs punt on an exact new standard and EPA “continues to seek input on this.” But the thrust of the PAGs is to give on-site authorities much greater “flexibility” in setting aside established limits; and
  • Resolves an internal fight inside EPA between nuclear versus public health specialists in favor of the former. The PAGs are the product of Gina McCarthy, the assistant administrator for air and radiation whose nomination to serve as EPA Administrator is taken up this week by the Senate.
  • Despite the years-long internal fight, this is the first public official display of these guides. This takes place as Japan grapples with these same issues in the two years following its Fukushima nuclear disaster.
“This is a public health policy only Dr. Strangelove could embrace. If this typifies the environmental leadership we can expect from Ms. McCarthy, then EPA is in for a long, dirty slog,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that the EPA package lacks a cogent rationale, is largely impenetrable and hinges on a series of euphemistic “weasel words.”

just when we think he can't get any worse, barack proves us wrong.

over and over.

he's willing to destroy public health?

is that not the perfect analogy for obamacare - the corporate giveaway that does nothing to help our health.

'let's move'?  hey, michelle obama, shake your tired ass on over to a radiated garden.

i am so sick of that whole family.


let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

 
Monday, April 15, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, DU denier Roger Helbig decides I'm the latest woman who needs to hear from him, Iraq is slammed with violence, people point out that if Nouri weren't on the campaign trail maybe the violence wouldn't be happening, the Green Party (national) decides the way to scare up new members is to demonize a powerful woman (Hillary Clinton) and you know they needed a gender traitor to front that attack, and so much more.

A Roger Helbig writes the public account in a tizzy over my April 4th entry "Depleted Uranium."  Roger pants, "I will wager that you do not know that you and everyone who reads your posting has DU in their body, everyone on Earth does - that is because DU is naturally occuring Uranium-238 and it has always been commonly found in rocks, soils, the air and water all over the globe."  And it just gets crazier (and more insulting) from there.

Roger, if it makes you happy, there are many things I don't know.  However, DU?  Yeah, Roger.  I hate geology.  I had to memorize the entire texts in college to pass it.  Nothing bores me more than geology -- of all the courses I took.  But I did four semesters of it.  And, yeah, I'm aware uranium is not a synthetic.  Uranium does occur naturally in nature.  Depleted Uranium isn't uranium, Roger.  That's like claiming the squash from my garden is natural so therefore baked squash is natural and occurs on its own.  No, Roger, that's not how it works.  Uranium is an element on the Periodic Table, Depleted Uranium is not.

Roger found the entry by "Google Alert."  He's apparently forever looking for someone writing about it so he can insist that the cancer in Iraq is a fluke or maybe that it just doesn't exist?  Who knows what goes on in that head of his?

Again, Roger, I don't know everything.  That's why, in the middle of dictating a snapshot, I will grab another cell phone and call someone and say, "Listen to this?  Does it make sense?  Have I screwed up?"  I did that when we first covered Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, spouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.  I checked that with a Kurdish-American college professor.  That did not stop some crazy woman -- who's a professor at a college in England -- from e-mailing non-stop to tell me how it should have been worded and how "evil" Hero Ibrahim Ahmed allegedly is.

Point being, some freaks are never going to be happy.  Roger, you can deny the huge increase in the rate of cancer in Falluja all you want, it's not going to make it go away.  You can stick your head in the sand -- though I doubt you'd choose the contaminated sands in Falluja to stick your head in -- but that won't take away the birth defects that they're seeing.

As embarrassing as your position is, it does say something.  It speaks to just how wrong what was done to Falluja -- and other places in Iraq -- was.  It's prompted a flock of deniers because they can't face the fact that, yes, War Crimes took place.  They can't face it, they can't handle it.  They have to deny.  We've seen it before with the bombing of Hiroshima.  It's taken decades for many American to acknowledge what happened.  The children of Falluja matter, Roger, not some little pipsqueak who does a Google alert on a topic he hates so he can huff and puff in e-mails.

Instead of making a silly fool of yourself, Roger, why don't you shed some tears for the poor innocents of Falluja.  Click on this link and go to BRussells Tribunal to see the birth defects you're too immature to face (you will then click on a link for this Young Turks video).

Then find a way to insist that those innocent children 'had it coming,' that they would grow up to be Ba'athists or whatever term you use a slur to comfort yourself when you can't deal with the reality of what your government did -- it's my government too, Roger, I am a citizen of the United States.  But I have no illusions of its inherent goodness -- nor did the founding fathers which is why they argued for transparency -- something that no longer exists.

Steve Oh: What's not known -- or not discussed enough -- is the massive contamination and environmental disaster that happened in Iraq.  And as a result, it's-it's caused massive deformities in children born in Iraq right now.  So-so Desi, can you speak a little bit about that?

 Desi Doyen:  Depleted Uranium essentially is what it is, it's Depleted Uranium.  It's used in weaponry -- primarily because it can penetrate armor.  And it was used a lot by the US troops.  The UK troops used some of it as well but the US troops used quite a bit of it and they won't tell the UN anywhere they used these areas so that they can be decontaminated.  But right now -- the incidents of birth defects and deformities in communities that were targeted by US troops is-is really astounding.  I'm not sure what the exact number was.  I think we have some graphics on that.

Steve Oh: We do.  So the birth defects in Falluja itself, it's fourteen times higher than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombs were dropped

 Desi Doyen: Jeez.

 Steve Oh: And we have graphics of the pictures of the kids

 Ana Kasparian:  Alright.  These are extremely, extremely graphic.

 Desi Doyen: So be ready to 

 Steve Oh: Yeah, if your squeamish, please look away.  This is bad.

 [Photo of three children are shown.]

 Ana Kasparian:  It's really horrific.

 Steve Oh: Now this is not counting the many, many babies who are -- See, this one.  This was one was born with two heads.  And the doctors there say they have never seen this kind of deformity before.  I mean, this child has half of its intestines and organs outside the body and multiple legs.

 Desi Doyen: It's really depressing to see that that's what's going on.  Also, just to make a point of this, that the United Nations, last December in the General Assembly, attempted to pass a resolution saying that we should use the precautionary principle when it comes to the use of Depleted Uranium but the US, the UK, France and Israel voted against that resolution to take Depleted Uranium out of the mix -- against 155 other countries that said that we should stop using it.  Unfortunately, the United States is in favor of continuing it, even though it has such an environmental destruction.  It is very difficult to clean up out of the environment and it has these very clear connections to these horrible defects.

 Steve Oh: And it's not just the Iraqis who are suffering, it's our own soldiers too because there are a lot of soldiers who are also suffering from Depleted Uranium contamination.

 Desi Doyen: Yes.

 Steve Oh:  And what's happening to them is that they're getting these massive headaches where they are dehabilitated, they can't move.  They're also urinating blood.

 Desi Doyen:  Right, right.  They're getting diagnosed with cancer.

 Steve Oh: And the cancer rate in Falluja is through the roof.   Back in the 90s, it used to be -- after the Iraq War in '91 -- there's a cancer rate between 40 and then it moved up to 800 people per 100,000 Iraqis.  Now that rate is up to 1,600 Iraqis per 100,000.

And it turns out Roger is a bit of a celebrity among the quacks advocating for DU.  Felicity Arbuthnot (at The Ecologist) wrote about him a few years back, "Roger Helbig, a man with an unhealthy obsession: he believes that depleted uranium (DU) waste from the nuclear fuel cycle, which is used in munitions and bullets -- is safe."

Let me end with a tip for Roger.  At this site, we've been covering Depleted Uranium for years.  We stood by Dave Lindorff when In These Times walked back the line.  So my point is, if Google alerts only just now put you wise to this site, Google alerts must just read headlines.

Oh, it turns out Roger is human filth.  Repeating: Roger Helbig, with the US Pentagon, is human filth.  Susan Hass has shared online, "Roger Helbig was able to find my work phone number within 15 minutes of my signing a petition to the UN against DU weapons.  He apparently has some connections with military intelligence if he is able to do that, that quickly.  He asked for me by name, then called me a liar, and with a voice filled with venom and veiled threats, told me he had no troubling finding out anything he  wanted to about me.  I hung up on him, then I reported this call to the local FBI office."


At the same site, Christina MacPherson shares:

 This is very worrying. I had thought that Roger Helbig was just some kind of angry nutter. I have received a number of insulting and abusive emails from him, and more often, comments sent to my website nuclear-news.net. I managed to block all his communications.
And I was advising others subject to his bullyng to do the same. Just ignore him, not sinking to his level.
But it is a worry that Helbig is able to bring his aggression to such a personal level.
Hard to believe that the Pentagon is silly enough to actually employ this person, who gives the impression of being at least, a disturbed personality.

Again, I don't know know everything.  When I started dictating this snapshot, I thought Roger was just a rude crank.  While I'm dictating, I'm informed of the above and much more.  So that tells us about the type of person who champions DU -- such a person is abusive to women, threatens women and thinks that normal and acceptable behavior.  That says it all, doesn't it?

 And on the topic of disgraceful: Robert Zoellick.  Last month in "Swarthmore values," we noted a students effort to protest War Hawk Zoellick speaking at the commencement.  And last month, Patrick Bond asked "What Will Robert Zoellick Break Next?" (CounterPunch):

 It should not distract us from Zoellick’s deeper capacity to reproduce and restructure imperial power. As Central American activist Toni Solo put it in CounterPunch in 2003, “Zoellick is neither blind nor crazy. He simply has no interest in the massive human cost, whether in the United States or abroad, of his lucrative global evangelical mission on behalf of corporate monopoly capitalism.”

The other theory is more skeptical of Zoellick’s efficacy, concluding that he’s not particularly good at what he does. Indeed, Zoellick is mainly of interest because he represents a global trend of Empire in crisis since the Millennium, featuring at least three self-immolating traits which he brings to next month’s climate showdown at the Bank.

First is the ideological fusion of neoconservatism and neoliberalism that Zoellick shares with his predecessor Wolfowitz. Both strains are bankrupt, by any reasonable accounting. Representing the former, Zoellick was at the outset a proud member of the Project for a New American Century, and as early as January 1998 he went on record that Iraq should be illegally overthrown.


Jamie Stiehm (US News and World Reports) breaks the good news today: Zoellick will not be speaking at Swarthmore, he's come down with a severe case of "think skin."   Stiehm explains:



The Washington powerhouse, until recently head of the World Bank, had agreed to accept an honorary degree at the Swarthmore College graduation, always a sylvan affair set in the woods in the Greek amphitheatre, surrounded by a fragrant forest in spring. Then he withdrew in anger after some students started a campaign on Facebook asserting he was an architect of the Iraq war. In fairness, that may be overstating it, but Zoellick supported the invasion. He was a good team player.  
I am not saying he is a war criminal, as his harshest critics are. But he is implicated in the tragic violence that will never be washed from the nation's hands. That's the price he pays for being one of the president's men. 



Zoellick fled from Swarthmore as fast as he could.  Sadly his victims in Iraq don't have the same mobility options.

This morning,   Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) counted 24 attacks, 25 dead and "more than 170" injured. By this afternoon, Tawfeeq was updating the death toll to 42 and the number injured to 257 while noting violent attacks in "Baghdad, Anbar, Babel, Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Nasriya."    Al Jazeera adds, "Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Baghdad, Waleed Ibrahim, said both Shia and Sunni neighbourhoods were targeted in the spate of attacks to hit the city." AP observes, "They were unusually broad in scope, striking not just Baghdad but also the western Sunni city of Fallujah, the ethnically contested oil-rich city of Kirkuk and towns in the predominantly Shiite south. Other attacks struck north of the capital, including the former al-Qaida stronghold of Baqouba and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit." Kareem Raheem (Reuters) notes, "Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda is regaining ground, especially in the western desert close to Syria's border. Islamic State of Iraq says it has joined forces with al-Nusra Front rebels fighting in Syria."  National Iraqi News Agency reports Hudhaifah Siddeeq, cousin of the Anbar protesters spokesperson Shiekh Saeed Allafi, was killed today by a sticky bombing in Ramadi and 2 members of the protection detail for Shaeikh Saeed Allafi were killed in another Ramadi sticky bombing. 



The US Embassy in Baghdad issued the following statement:


 U.S. EMBASSY BAGHDAD
Office of the Spokesman
__________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 15, 2013

The United States Condemns the Terrorist Attacks Across Iraq
The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attacks perpetrated today throughout Iraq. The deliberate targeting of innocent people is reprehensible. The United States remains committed to supporting Iraq’s efforts to combat and overcome terrorism. Our condolences go out to the families of the victims of this attack and we hope for the swift recovery of the injured.
###


 The attacks follow last Saturday's early voting and come before this Saturday's regular voting -- for 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces.  Al Jazeera notes, "The credibility of the April 20 vote has been drawn into question as 14 election hopefuls have been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part."



From Saturday:

 Today, All Iraq News notes, Electoral Commission member Kadhim al-Zubaei declared that each polling station also has a complaint box.  Dropping back to Tuesday's snapshot:


  
Still on the political, from the April 2nd snapshot, "Alsumaria reports that Salah al-Obeidi, spokesperson for the Sadr bloc, declared today that pressure is  being put upon police and military recruits to get them to vote for Nouri's State of Law slate."  Al Rafidayn reports today that Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has also called out the efforts to pressure police and army to vote for a specific list of candidate (Al Rafidayn notes that al-Hakim avoided naming the list in question).  




Wael Grace and Mohammad Sabah (Al Mada) report allegations have already emerged of voter fraud and others problems including that some forces are discovering their names are not on the voter rolls.  Movement leader and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc states that they have video proof of security service officers forcing those serving under them to participate and to vote for one party.  Kitabat adds that observers saw officers pressuring recruits to vote for Nouri al-Maliki's candidates in Karbala. 

Kitabat offers these hard numbers: 8143 candidates running for 378 seats in the 12 provinces holding elections. Security and military personnel voted in 14 provinces.



Today All Iraq News reports that MP Jawad al-Jouburi told the press that security forces were pressured to vote for Nouri's State of Law and that Nouri spoke for one hour pressuring them to vote for his slate.     al-Jouburi is with Moqtada al-Sadr's Parliamentary bloc.  All Iraq News notes that provincial candidate Talib Abdul Karim's Mosul home was bombed.  Yesterday, NINA reported that   provincial candidate Najim al-Harbi (with Iraqiya) was killed by a Diyala Province bombing.  All Iraq News noted that the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler condemned the assassination.  National Iraqi News Agency notes Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi  declared that the assassination of al-Harbi was an attempt to silence the voices that fight corruption, authoritarianism and injustice.  The Iraqi Islamic Party joined in condemning the attack and stated, "The Party called on the government to assume their real duties in protecting the Iraqis' lives and address its poor performance."  National Dialogue Front MP Nada al-Jubouri told the press that they're calling for an investigation into the assassination. Saturrday provincial candidate Hatam al-Dulaimi was shot dead in Tirkit.  Fifteen candidates have been killed this cycle.  Tim Arango (New York Times) reports they were all Sunni and the murders are "raising concerns in Washington over Iraq's political stability and the viability of a democratic system the United States has heavily invested over years of war and diplomacy."

  
All Iraq News reports Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi condemned the violence and declared that "this security breakdown is expected because of [Nouri al-]Maliki's tensed policies and his engaging in targeting his opponents and preparing the malicious files to topple them." NINA notes Moqtada al-Sadr condemned the attacks and stated, "Today's explosions occur while the ruling party [Nouri's State of Law] is busy campaigning for the election in Basra Province."  All Iraq News notes MP Hakim al-Zamili who sits on the Security and Defense Parliamentary Committee declared, "Maliki has stated that he will change and punish the security commanders whom in their areas security breaches had occurred, but, up to now, no one of those leaders was changed or punished, this proves lack of seriousnees in changing and punishing the neglectful leaders and the security plans.  All the alleged investment projects are nothing but for electoral propaganda.  Maliki is supposed to stay in Baghdad instead of wandering around the provinces for electoral propaganda."  


We all realize that when Nouri's campaigning, Iraq's not just missing a prime minister, right?

 
Back in July, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support."  

He's never nominated minister of defense, interior and national security.

Never.

It was a power-grab.  Okay, he grabbed the power -- because the White House let him.  You grab the power, you take the blame.
Nouri is Minister of Defense, Nouri is Minister of Interior and he is Minister of National Security.  And he's failing at everyone of those jobs.
Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) adds Nouri condemned the attacks as well and observes, "The coming elections will be a major test of Maliki’s power and whether he can guarantee balloting without violence following last year's exit of U.S. forces from Iraq. It will also be viewed as a litmus test of how committed Iraqi political factions are to holding a free and fair vote without the U.S. military watching over the process."  Tim Arango reports a Falluja fortune teller who goes by the name Um Razak is being sought out by "some candidates" in the hope that she can help them win by "cast[ing] a spell" and he quotes her stating, "I tell them that they will win, but that they need to work hard.  They promise me that if they win they will pay for me to go the Hajj in Mecca, or buy me a house."  Meanwhile Press TV speaks with analyst Ali al-Nashmi who states, with a straight face, that the elections will bring peace and security to Iraq.  I think of the two, Um Razak is far wiser.


Meanwhile Martin Kobler went to Najaf today.  NINA reports he visited the city "to meet with the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani."  After the meeting, Kobler spoke to the press.  All Iraq News quotes him stating that the Grand Ayatollah is very concerned over the various crises in Iraq



Last week, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies held a conference on the Invasion of Iraq.  Dr. Zami Bishara addressed the conference.  His remarks included: 

 We have every right to view the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq during 2003, which came on the heels of a decade-old punitive blockade, as a pivotal event that changed the course of history. It was an even which impacted our understanding of global politics as a whole. American and European intellectuals, meanwhile, have their own right to see the Iraq war through from own perspective. This they can do through a critique of the multiplicity of narratives explaining the war.  Or through the critique of a media and political discourse which is now powerful enough to use surreptitious excuses to manipulate public opinion on military intervention in a country thousands of miles away. It is this same media establishment which now, years later and heaving under the weight of the dead soldiers who were sent to fight on spurious grounds, finds itself putting paid to lies which it had itself spread. Crucially, the media, having first peddled the lies and then falsified them, has not held itself to account. Nor has the political system made politicians responsible for the war crimes they committed. Crimes which might be repeated. Indeed, beginning with the Nuremburg trials, only the vanquished have been held accountable for war crimes. Even the formation of the International Criminal Court did not change this reality.
 As for the Arab scholars gathered here, we have a right to put forward two questions with some urgency. Firstly, would any of us have been concerned about the lies peddled had the Iraqi people not resisted?  If the plans which policy-makers had put in place and deluded themselves into believing succeeded? A second point is to define which act was more truly a crime. Was misleading public opinion in Europe and the US the real crime? Or was it, rather, the destruction of a country and interference in its social and national fabric? The imposition of a regime which entrenched that destruction? A constitution which puts that destruction into a legal framework, thereby making the retrieval of national bonds more difficult?


 The BRussells Tribunal reports on the opening remarks here.  The BRussells Tribunal also reports on the conference:


Arabism was a constant theme throughout the first day of the conference. Although Iraq was the main focus, both Syria and Palestine came in for repeated mention. This is not only due to Israeli influence on the decision-making processes of the Neoconservatives and the Bush II Administration, but also speaks of a sense of Arab anguish with regards to both Palestine and Iraq, and foreign occupation. As Dr. Bishara pointed out, the Arab peoples—unlike the leaderships of their countries—were united in their distaste for foreign rule, and their commitment to Palestine. So it seems, Arabism is alive and well in the political and social discourse. Is this the case in the palaces, boardrooms, and the Arab streets? The severe injustices suffered by the Palestinians, Iraqis and Syrians are what motivate scholars to advance ideas of justice and accountability. Accountability was also picked up by one of our foreign guests, former UK Development Secretary Clare Short, who said “Although the wrong that has been done can’t be put right, the truth must come to light."
Another reoccurring theme is the issue of sectarianism. Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, highlighted the current protests in Iraq against sectarianism and the partition of the country, offering the question, why are these protests generally ignored by the global media? Again citing sectarianism, Jonathan Steele from The Guardian says, “Syria has become the new Iraq” as the sectarian violence that is tearing the country apart suggests that the lessons from Iraq were not learned. Lastly, warning of the dangers of sectarianism and its use as a political tool to divide and rule, Clare Short again spoke her mind: “I have never before heard of this Shia-Sunni division that you now hear about endlessly. We must challenge this growing description of growing troubles in the region, that it’s all explained by sectarianism.” In accordance with her plea to challenge the sectarian rhetoric rampant in today’s Middle Eastern discourse, we must ask the question: who is propelling sectarian divisions and why do we choose to define ourselves along sectarian lines?




Last week, Niqash reported on the recent attack on four newspapers in Baghdad:




Recently gangs that allegedly follow Shiite Muslim cleric, Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, attacked four Baghdad newspapers because they didn’t like what the papers had written. How did they get through central city checkpoints? Iraqi journalists want to know.

Last week a group of around 50 men stormed four newspapers in Baghdad, attacking those they found in the media offices with knives and sticks and even throwing one journalist from a roof. The four newspapers’ offices – Al Parliman, Al Dostour, Al Mustaqbal and Al Nas – were attacked in broad daylight and, as some have noted, are also near military and police checkpoints.



“Clerics and tribal leaders who claimed that they were followers of the [Shiite Muslim religious leader] Mahmoud al-Sarkhi visited the newspaper offices and told us they were upset about news published on the front page that day,” a statement released by the editor-in-chief of Al Parliman after the attacks, said. “We told them that our newspaper was a professional one and that our position is neutral and objective. We also told them we were ready to publish their side of the story.”



Al Parliman staffers also told the group that the report had come from a news agency.



The stories that had upset the men were about the how religious leader al-Sarkhi was planning to go to Karbala, one of the most holy cities for Shiite Muslims because of two very important shrines there, and take over Friday prayers at one particular shrine so he could receive funds collected there.



Over the past months, tensions between the followers of al-Sarkhi – who is considered controversial because of his belief that he is more senior, spiritually, then the highest religious authority for Shiite Muslims in Iraq, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani – and other Shiite Muslims have been growing. In late April 2012, there were a variety of disturbances that saw protests and some al-Sarkhi-dominated mosques were burned.



Let's turn the US.  Jill Stein supposedly wanted votes in 2012.  You couldn't tell it with her awful campaign.  Today at ZNet, there's an article with her byline:


Jill Stein, the Green Party's 2012 presidential candidate today condemned the recently released Obama 2014 budget proposal, issuing the following statement:

"Despite his campaign promises to protect Social Security and make the economy fair, Obama’s budget throws the American people under the bus. And it gives the economic elite a free ride on that same bus that’s running us over.

Specifically, this budget swaps the painful $1.2 trillion in sequester cuts for a different, but equally painful, new package of cuts worth the same amount. As part of these new cuts, the President is leading the charge to roll back Medicare and Social Security – the “Grand Bargain” with ruthless corporate Republicans that Obama has promoted for years. There is nothing grand about dismantling the crown jewels of the New Deal and the Great Society.

The new cuts are superimposed on $1.4 trillion in cuts since 2011 that are already hurting our jobs, schools, health care, housing and social support systems. The burden this budget imposes on the wealthy is trivial by comparison – such as ending tax-benefits in private retirement accounts for those fortunate few with over 3 million already salted away.

The President’s budget proposes $400 billion in Medicare and other health care cuts, partly through requiring seniors to increase Medicare payments or reduce their coverage. Obama also calls for “means testing” Medicare, making it a benefit only for middle class and low income seniors rather than for everyone over age 65. 




Did you know that the Green Party that gave Barack a pass, the pathetic national party that couldn't say a damn word about Iraq last month, is now wanting members.  They didn't run real campaigns in 2008 -- in fact many 'Green Party' members went on Democracy Now to declare they'd be voting for Barack.  And they didn't dare challenge him in 2012.  Jill Stein should have run a real campaign.

They couldn't take on Barack.  They always have a problem taking on men.  They save their harsh and mean for women.  Which is why the Green Party is suddenly discovering that they want to build a party because, as the website proclaims, "I don't want to vote for Hillary in 2016."

The little whore -- and that's the only term for it -- who wrote the piece is Sasha Brookner.  The piece of trash voted for Barack   but now she's leaving the Democratic Party cause she's not going to vote for Hillary in 2016.  And the whore wants to pretend she's a feminist.

She's not a feminist.  She's one more whore for the patriarchy.

Please note, as we said in 2007 here, you don't have to support Hillary.  I don't even know that she's going to run.  But no woman has to vote for Hillary because she's a woman.

But here's what you have to do if you're a feminist:  You have to stop trashing women to advance men.  You have to stop using other women to advance yourself.  You have to stop presenting women as the scary other.  These are basic ground rules for feminism.  I didn't invent them.


 Hillary hasn't even declared that she's running but this Whore is going to make Hillary a punching bag to advance herself.  That's not feminism.

Should Hillary run, I don't know that I'll vote for her. (I probably won't vote.  I'm very glad I didn't for president in 2012 and don't plan to vote for anyone for president until someone comes along who earns my vote.  Russ Feingold could easily do that -- on any party ticket.)  I do know, if this site is still going, I will be one of her harsher critics.  We tackled her Senate testimony.  She went into private life right after.  If she hadn't?  If she hadn't we would be hitting on major problems with her testimony.  If she runs for president, and this site is still up then, I will have to address those issues.


Hillary's not beyond criticism.  Her gender does not give her a pass.  But there is criticism and there is demonization.  And when it's a woman being demonized, it's part of maintaining the patriarchy.


That's clear by the fact that  Whore Sasha did not write this column in 2008.  She did not write it in 2012.  She was happy to whore for Barack, she was happy to vote for Barack.  She was happy not asking for people to vote for someone other than Barack.   But Hillary's driving her out of the Democratic Party and into the Green Party?


That's not feminism.  That's what gender traitors, Queen Bees and cheap Whores have done for centuries, which is -- get in good with the patriarchy by attacking a woman of power.


Unlike the Sasha Whores, we held Hillary's feet to the fire here.  And she was just Secretary of State.  The Sasha Whores gave Barack their vote but refused to hold his feet to the fire.  They are letting him destroy Social Security, they refused to call out the illegal attack on Libya.


Even now, grasp this, even now they'd rather do a sexist attack on Hillary then call out the man responsible for The Drone War -- the man who is killing innocents.


The Green Party could have presented an alternative in 2012.  By then we knew Bradley Manning was a political prisoner.  By then we knew the demonizing of Lynne Stewart would continue, that she would remain the political prisoner used in an attempt to scare defense attorneys from challenging the government.  (Lynne's cancer has returned.  Please consider signing this petition calling for a compassionate release for Lynne.)

All of this was known.  And they refused to mount a robust campaign.  None of this mattered to them as much as a half-Black, half-White man getting a second term -- that Free Speech TV once explained in 2010, was the most important thing.  Nothing else mattered -- not dead civilians, not political prisoners, not jobs, not anything.

And now Whore Sasha wants people to think she has ethics?  Please.  She's just a whore who's selling it for another man.

They're lousy pieces of trash.  Whores like Sasha fade away quickly.  They get a year or two of popularity and then they find the boys are interested in some new female face for the patriarchy. 

If you're not getting how useless and how ugly the Green Party US is, grasp that they're means of recruitment right now is 'scary Hillary.'  Yeah, they're as nutty as the right-wing was in the 90s.  Maybe they can start hawking The Clinton Murders and other garbage?

Ralph Nader ran real campaigns.

Jill Stein didn't run a real campaign.  If we're around in 2016, I will not be treating another faux Green presidential campaign as the real deal.

As Ava and I wrote the day after the 2012 election in "Let The Fun Begin:"

Supposedly the Green Party is opposed to war. So when Tim Arango reported the White House was negotiating with Nouri to send more troops back into Iraq, Jill Stein should have led on that. But she's a politician which is just a whore without the desire to please a customer. So Jill ignored it. She ignored a lot. Six weeks ago, in fact, after Barack cratered in the first debate, she and her campaign began going after Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Huh? You're a Green.  You're on the left.  The high profile left vote getter just imploded on national TV.  It's the perfect time for you to pick up some of his voters. But you refuse to try.  You rush to go after Romney and Ryan instead.
Why is that? Because you are not a real party. Because you will forever be the little sister of the Democratic Party. Because every four years, you start off with promise and end up revealing just how craven and disgusting you are. If we are offering commentary four years from now, please note, being a Green will not save you.  Being third party will not save you. We will call you out in real time.


The national Green Party is a fraud and a fake.  And it is now in the business of trafficking in demonizing 'the other' to scare up new members.  That's what Whore Sasha has done with her awful column.  The 2016 election is four years off.  Hillary's not announced she's even running.  But Whore Sasha wants to demonize her and make her the scary other. 






If the national Green Party were capable of shame, it would be red-faced right now.  (My comments do not refer to state chapters -- many of them are sincere about building a party and run real elections and deserve support.)  If they had any integrity, they'd publicly apologize for that sexist attack, that sexist attempt to tar and feather a woman to feather their own nest.









 

 

 cnn

 





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