Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Other Items

An agreement between the United States and Iraq to allow U.S. troops to remain operating in Iraq past 2008 should be put to a popular referendum, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged in an online message to his followers.
The message also calls for weekly protests against the agreement, being negotiated by the two governments.
Al-Sadr also called for "an organized media action" and "a unified political and parliamentary movement" to oppose the standards of forces agreement, which would replace the U.N. resolution that allows U.S. troops to operate in Iraq when it expires at the end of the year.
Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia has frequently clashed with Iraqi and U.S. forces, most recently in Sadr City, a Baghdad neighborhood considered a Sadrist stronghold.
In the statement posted on a loyalist Web site, the popular cleric renewed his call for a timetable for the departure of U.S. troops and called for delegations to approach the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League and other Iraq neighbors to discuss the agreement.


The above is from CNN's "Al Sadr: Let Iraqis decide on U.S. troops" and al-Sadr will no doubt be testing to see how strong his hold still is in Iraq. (And the US military will be watching.) Pointing out that it's "a non-story that wastes everyone's time," Polly notes the BBC's "Ex-aide criticises Bush over Iraq:"


Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said US President George W Bush was not "open and forthright" on Iraq and rushed to an unnecessary war.
In a book to be published on Monday, Mr McClellan says Mr Bush "veered terribly off course". He also attacks the White House's handling of Hurricane Katrina.
From July 2003 to his resignation in April 2006, Mr McClellan was a firm defender of the Bush administration.



We'll note it there and, as Polly points out, it's a non-story. Scott McClellan has a book to sell. The hearts and flowers stuff went out of style around 2006. There's no short-term impact; however, in terms of historical, it does make it harder for the later Remaking of the Bully Boy -- when so many are doing their faux tell-alls. (Although he will be remade, the same way Tricky Dick was -- revisionary history is the Republican Party's main tool.)

Turning to politics. Goldie notes that Chelsea Clinton's "An Important Decision . . ." (HillaryClinton.com):


We need your help to make a critical decision -- our next official campaign t-shirt.

I couldn't believe the incredible response to our t-shirt design contest. We got thousands of great entries. They were creative, inspirational, funny, and beautiful. It was amazing to see the devotion to my mom's campaign come through in each t-shirt. Thank you to everyone who submitted a design!

It wasn't easy to narrow it down, but we've chosen five we think are particularly great, and now we need your help in making our final decision. Please vote for your favorite design -- the winning shirt will go on sale in our online campaign store.

Please click here to see the finalists and vote for your favorite.

Thanks again for everything you're doing to help my mom!

Go Hillary!


Meanwhile, the struggler Barack remains in the race. Jeralyn (TalkLeft) notes:

Barack Obama escaped hot water over his mistaking Auschwitz for Buchenwald. Fair enough. But I have a new theory now -- one that's more a curious observation than a criticism, or perhaps a little of both.
He makes a lot of mistakes about his family history. It's like he's retelling stories he's heard from third parties, including campaign staff who looked the stuff up. Maybe, aside from his grandparents with whom he lived for several years, he didn't know their side of the family that well -- including the great uncle who was one of the first at Buchenwald. In other words, he's telling stories he's learned on the campaign trail rather than ones he grew up hearing.
It probably wasn't his father who mistakenly told him the Kennedy family paid for his travel to the U.S. to study in Hawaii. It probably wasn't his mother who told him the 1965 March in Selma, AL allowed her to marry his father (he was born in 1961). More likely, I think, campaign researchers and aides came up with it.

Elaine made a similar point:

Let's all be really honest, that wasn't mis-speaking. Barack didn't know the difference between Auschwitz and Buchenwald. For some people, that may seem like no big deal but don't forget this is Barack's maternal side of the family -- the one he didn't write a book about. Which most likely indicates it was not caring about the stories until he decided Monday to use it in a speech. It's really insulting and it's also very telling.

While Mike noted:

What an idiot. He's supposed to be smart. Makes you think he got into college on some sort of special entry program. He really is an idiot. I don't know if that's because of his Indonesian schooling (in which case American history really wouldn't have been taught there because it's not domestic history) or if it's because he's so stupid. But he's really stupid however he ended up that way.

Cedric's "Barack whines" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BARACK POUTS!" (joint-post) take a comic look at it.

From the public account:
WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE

Press Advisory: For Immediate Release, May 22, 2008

Media Contact: Frida Berrigan, (347) 683-4928; frida.berrigan@gmail.com

http://www.witnesstorture.org/Guantanamo-Day-in-court

GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES TO GET THEIR DAY IN COURT

Witness Against Torture Activists to "Represent" Detainees in Trial,
May 27

WASHINGTON, DC ­ Detainees at the U.S. Military
Prison in Guantánamo will finally get their day
in court on May 27 ­ Superior Court, in Washington DC.

That is when 35 Americans from cities and towns
across the country will go on trial for a protest
at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008.
They face charges of either "unlawful free
speech" or "causing a harangue" or both. Each
count carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in
jail, as well as fines and court fees.

In a new twist on traditional protest, the 35
activists will enter their names as those of
actual Guantánamo inmates. On January 11th, they
were arrested without their own identification
and were taken into custody under the name of a
Guantánamo prisoner. This act symbolically grants
the Guantánamo prisoners their day in court--
which the Pentagon has denied them for years.

Father Bill Pickard, a Catholic priest from
Scranton, PA, is one of the defendants. But he
will be tried "as" Faruq Ali Ahmed, a Guantánamo
detainee. "I went to the Supreme Court to make a
simple plea that the inhumane treatment and
actual torture of inmates at Guantánamo Bay
stop," says Fr. Pickard. "I went to bring the
name and the humanity of Faruq Ali Ahmed — who
claims he traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 simply
to teach the Koran to children and that he has no
affiliation with the Taliban or Al Qaeda — before
the law. He cannot do it himself, so I am called
by my faith, my respect for the rule of law and
my conscience to do it for him."  Among the
defendants is a hog farmer from Grinnell, Iowa, a
social worker from Saratoga Springs, New York,
and a legal secretary from Baltimore.

Representing themselves, the defendants plan on
justifying their acts as upholding U.S. law and
international human rights and will call
witnesses to document the abuses at Guantánamo.

Witness Against Torture will hold two events related to the trial on
May 27:

At 7:45 am, dressed in orange jumpsuits and black
hoods, those facing trial will carry their
Guantánamo inmates' names from the U.S. Supreme
Court (Maryland Avenue and First Street) to the
D.C. Superior Court (Carl Moultrie Court House,
500 Indiana, Ave NW), where their cases will be heard.

At 8:30 am, Witness Against Torture will hold a
press conference outside the Superior Court.
Defendants and witnesses will address the media.
They will also hold a ceremony of justice,
expressing their demand that the rights and
humanity of the detainees be respected by placing
placards bearing the detainees' names alongside
copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva
Convention, and the sacred texts of various religious traditions.

The trial will begin at 9:30 am. Press is invited
to attend all the proceedings.

The January 11 protest was organized by Witness
Against Torture (www.witnesstorture.org), which
was formed in 2005 when 25 Americans walked from
Cuba to the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo.

A full media kit is available on our website at
http://www.witnesstorture.org/5-19-PressKit


As long as things are getting noted from strangers e-mailing the public account, an old friend asked me to note Augustana and I told him I would get to it before the end of May (which is almost here). At the end of April, Can't Love, Can't Hurt was released and the single everyone's focused on "Sweet and Low." Click here for the group's MySpace page -- no, we don't link to MySpace normally, this is a favor for a friend. Below should be the video of "Sweet and Low"



And here's a live video.




You may know them from the song "Boston" which NBC's Scrubs brought to larger attention and if you enjoyed the live video, they played live in the studio for an NPR broadcast over Memorial Day Weekend (text and audio at link). Again, the new CD is Can't Love, Can't Hurt and it's available now.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.












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