As I wrote in my previous blog, the same day Counterpunch published P. Cockburn's article, Reuters reported, "Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said some U.S. forces could be needed for 10 years":
"We do understand that the Iraqi military is not going to get built out in the three years. We do need many more years. It might be 10 years," Dabbagh said at a Pentagon press briefing.
But besides what this or that puppet might say, one needs just to stop the flow of propaganda and think; if the US didn't respect the UN Charter and international law when they invaded Iraq, they will certainly not respect any meaningless agreement signed by its own Quisling government. To focus on the SOFA is just another diversion; the US plan, far from being a "total defeat", as Cockburn writes, has been completely successful. Mission accomplished.
The official lib-left intelligentsia must continue its real job as gatekeeper of dissent; its audiences, the most aware, active and willing to stop their governments from continuing to perpetrate crimes against humanity for the sake of elites' profit and power, must be controlled through "friendly" propaganda. When Obama's war machine is preparing to use all its bestial might against the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan and with an economic and financial crisis without precedent hitting millions of people, the public opinion in the West needs to be tamed once again. The eunuchs have gladly renounced to their organs in change of a little place at the table of the gods, or maybe they are just happy for some falling crumbs.
The eunuchs have gladly renounced to their organs in change of a little place at the table of the gods, or maybe they are just happy for some falling crumbs.
The above is from The Cat's Dream's "Propaganda in the Time of Obama" and a visitor noted that in a lengthy e-mail where she pointed out that TCB and TCI seem to be "driving down similar roads and avenues" and offering as examples the above and this TCB piece contrasted with our December 11th "Iraq snapshot" and "I Hate The War." She wondered if we could mention The Cat's Blog? We have now done that and I've also added them to our permalinks (below John Pilger, on the left). We have noted them at least once before (with regards to a Phyllis Bennis entry). We'll gladly note the above and again we've put TCB on the permalinks. There are enough sell-outs and liars. Those serious about ending the illegal war need to be aware of others who are as well. If you've missed it, Panhandle Media has hit a new low. Alleged 'independents' like Amy Goodman and I'll-Hold-His-Feet-To-The-Fire-Someday Laura Flanders are among those hosting -- hosting! -- an inauguration ball.
No, that's not allowed. That's not what journalists do. It does explain why Liar Goody and the Self-Loathing Lesbian Laura never could speak out, never could call Barack out, went out of their way to repeatedly LIE about other candidates. They're nothing but whores. Yes, Katrina vanden Heuvel is a host as well but if anyone's stupid enough to mistake her for a journalist . . . Artists are participating and that's their right. They're not journalists. If Tom Hayden was participating, I wouldn't call him out just for participating (I would call out some idiotic statement he'd make -- and we know he'd make at least one) because he's a Democratic politician. He is not the press, he will never be the press, he has no press training, he's nothing but a party organ for the Democratic Party. But those who present as journalists? They've crossed serious ethical boundaires by hosting this little 'peace' ball. And Amy Goodman? Liar Goody wants to call out Real Journalists for their conflicts of interests? What a laugh.
What a sorry excuse for 'jounalism' Amy Goodman is. One other person to mention: Howard Zinn. Howard's a historian who did some important work many, many decades ago. As a historian, he can do whatever he wants. He's not a journalist. But where he gets into a little trouble?
Howard endorsed Barack Obama and in doing so PISSED off his logical following. DLC-ers and your average Democrat are not Howard Zinn supporters. Democrats who are aware and left, independents, Greens, anarachists and similar people are Zinn's base. His base was outraged by that bulls**t. Howard realized, "Uh, oh, I'm too old to start over. I can't trash my reputation so close to the death bed!" So he endorsed Ralph. He took back his Barack endorsement and he endorsed Ralph Nader. He did it in a craven manner -- Coward Zinn is so apt -- where it was limited and most people would be unaware of it. In fact, outside of Ralph's supporters, very few people knew he had endorsed Ralph Nader.
Barack Obama is a Corporate War Hawk. You can't celebrate his inauguration and be part of the independent left. You can't. It doesn't work that way. And by deciding to be one of the hosts lending their names, Howard Zinn has disgraced his own. And it's so laughable and such insanity because he knows the fallout he suffered when he decided to endorse Barack.
But that's his own personal issues and his own legacy to trash and tarnish. Amy Goodman is not a journalist and she should be called out on her decision to host and on her decision to fundraise for her allgedly 'independent' program. She's selling tickets for $1,000. One thousand bucks. And the money goes to her show. And you want to pretend that it's in her interest to offer any honest criticism of Barack Obama? She's already short -- Democracy Now! had a shortfall (as did most Pacifica programs) -- and now she's got the last of the tickets to the ball and selling them off for $1000 donations. And we're supposed to pretend that she would be honest and risk driving down enthusiasm and frenzy? Hell no.
And what she and the others don't understand -- but, pay attention, whispers are afoot that grown ups will be put back in charge of Pacifica and that would certainly put a cramp on some of the 'shennagians' that have been going on -- where Amy would go for radio broadcasts is a puzzler because NPR hates her ass. You can't throw the screaming fit she did -- re: commentary that she insisted was news -- in an NPR office and ever have anyone take you seriously -- and when she decided to slant her show for all of 2008, it only reminded everyone that, all these years later, of that screaming, raging fit she threw and that she still doesn't know the first thing about journalism. Goody would no doubt insist that she can make sure she doesn't cross a line. That's the same excuse that a hundred others offered. And, here's the thing, you're not just supposed to aovid a conflict of interest as a journalist, you are supposed to avoid anything that would promote the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Goody Liar likes to play Last Journalist Standing and liken herself to I.F. Stone. Stone wouldn't be at an inaugural ball as a host and he sure wouldn't have attempted to make money off it. But when you fail to see truth on the treaty masquerading as Status Of Forces Agreement, when you fail to hear reality on Barack Obama's 'withdrawal' from Iraq, remember that whores have to line their own pockets and grasp that whores do not make for good journalists. Meanwhile, the war drags on . . .
They're just there to try and make the people free,
But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.
Just more blood-letting and misery and tears
That this poor country's known for the last twenty years,
And the war drags on.
-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)
Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4221 and tonight? 4224. Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier died when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle in eastern Baghdad at approximately 8 p.m. Jan. 10. The Soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin." Just Foreign Policy's counter estimates the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war to be 1,307,319 . . . same as last week. Again, some of our 'peace' friends have other things to do.
Before we go into further violence today, we'll note a death. Nicole Winfield (AP) reports that Cardinal Pio Laghi died yesterday at the age of 86. Pope John Paul II sent the cardinal to DC in 2003 ahead of the start of the illegal war: "Laghi, who had been friendly with the Bush family, delivered a letter from John Paul and pressed Bush on whether he was doing everything to avert war."
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Mosul car bombing that left four police officers wounded. Saturday, McClatchy's Laith Hammoudi reported a Baghdad roadside bombing left three people injured. Reuters notes a Saturday roadside bombing in Baghdad that injured four police officers and a Saturday Mosul car bombing that injured four police officers.
Shootings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 police officers shot dead in Mosul. Reuters notes an attack today on "a money exchange shop" in which 2 people were killed and three more wounded.
Kidnappings?
Saturday McClatchy's Laith Hammoudi reported 1 police officer was kidnapped in Mosul.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2 corpses were discovered in Mosul.
Kim Gamel (AP) reported Friday on the latest assault on the press Friday. Today, Gamel provides an update: Iraq will no longer require reporters to sign a contract in order to cover the January 31st provincial elections and the 14-page contract is being tossed. In an interesting development not really noted, Kimi Yoshino (Los Angeles Times) quotes Judge Qassim Hasan Abodi stating, "These are not our regulations. All we ask is that the media be neutral, transparent and objective. This is the only thing." Yoshino doesn't identify the body that Hasan's with, just notes it's over elections ("head of Iraq's election commission") -- he is the head of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission. That is the UN backed body (UNAMI works with them) and the claim being made on Friday -- when the story of the contract and the penalities broke -- was that the IHEC had pushed that. No, they didn't. Which is why we put the blame where it belonged: Nouri al-Maliki. The IHEC never backed that contract, never suggested it. The elections should be very interesting but what's taking place in the lead-up already is highly interesting.
Meanwhile Sam Dagher (New York Times) reports that the Parliament has still not selected a leader to replace Mahmoud al-Mashhadani as Speaker:
According to political agreements, his successor must be a Sunni Arab, as part of a codified effort to help Iraq's Sunni minority feel it has a voice in government. But disagreements over the choice led to more walkouts from the main Sunni political coalition, Tawafiq, on Saturday, weakening the bloc before crucial provincial elections scheduled for the end of January and raising the possibility of street protests by outraged Sunnis. The dispute may also keep Parliament from passing any legislation until a speaker is chosen and confirmed.
Tawafiq had been given until Friday to come up with a new candidate for the post. On Thursday, Iyad al-Samarraie, Tawafiq's head and a senior leader in one of the bloc's main parties, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said in an interview that he had been nominated for the position. Accusing the party of trying to force its coalition partners into accepting Mr. Samarraie, four Sunni deputies, including Taha al-Luhaibi, said Saturday that they would leave Tawafiq.
Dagher's written an indepth article and we'll try to discuss it more in a snapshot this week but there's just not time tonight. (Of all the days for the paper to run an actual story.) On the same topic, Kimi Yoshino and Ali Hameed (Los Angeles Times) add:
The latest disagreement over who should replace Mashadani prompted four more lawmakers to pull out of the main Sunni bloc, Tawafiq, deepening the divide among the already splintered Sunni groups. The defection came just a couple of weeks after five Sunni members from Mashadani's party, the National Dialogue Council, withdrew
Time is why I will link to this column by Dan Rodrick (Baltimore Sun) but not quote from it (it'll work better paired up with something for tomorrow morning anyway -- a response on PTSD). On the issue of PTSD, Dana highlights Kelly Kennedy's "PTSD victim booted for 'misconduct'" (Army Times):
After serving two tours in Iraq -- tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die -- Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him.
Instead, service member advocates and Boyle’s mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness.
In October, a medical evaluation board physician at Bragg recommended that Boyle go through the military disability retirement process for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder -- which is supposed to automatically earn him at least a 50 percent disability retirement rating -- as well as for chronic headaches. The doctor also diagnosed Boyle with alcohol abuse and said he was probably missing formations due to the medications doctors put him on to treat his PTSD.
But in December, Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, signed an order forcing Boyle out on an administrative discharge for a "pattern of misconduct," and ordering that the soldier pay back his re-enlistment bonus.
Last year, after a number of troops diagnosed with PTSD were administratively forced out for "personality disorders" following combat deployments, the Defense Department changed its rules: The pertinent service surgeon general now must sign off on any personality-disorder discharge if a service member has been diagnosed with PTSD.
Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) interviewed Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (not to be confused with President Jalal Talabani -- who is Kurdish and from the KRG but is president of Iraq). We'll note the following:
Barzani is asked if there has been any progress on the oil law.
Barzani:"As far as we are concerned, there is a foregone conclusion on how the oil law should be drafted, but unfortunately it seems that Baghdad is dragging its feet and not wanting an amicable solution to it. In real essence, the problems or blame are being laid at the doorsteps of the Kurds at a time when the state has no oil policy and the ministry is a failed ministry with a failed policy. And at the same time, they do not want to see any development in this field in Kurdistan as well and [are] blaming the Kurds for the failures in Baghdad. And quite contrary to that the problem is not with the Kurdistan region.
"Over the past three years, there has been a budget of eight billion dollars allocated for the [rehabilitation] of the oil industry sector in order to increase the production level, and when you look at it the production it has perhaps even decreased, rather than increased. That's what the Iraqi public has to be told. What was the reason and why [was] this budget that was allocated was not properly spent and what actually has happened to that budget and why has the oil production not met the required production level.
Barzani is asked why the money hasn't been spent properly.
Barzani:"This is what we ought to know as well, to know the reason for it, the Iraqi public need to know about it."
The latest new content from Third went up this morning:
Truest statement of the week
Truest statement of the week II
A note to our readers
Editorial: Racists make Burris jump through hoops
TV: About that digital switch
1 Book, 5 Minutes
Chummyness You Can Believe In
Ms. Pathetic, fold tent please
The New Ms. magazine! (Parody)
How safe is the US Embassy in Baghdad?
Barack's fan club poses as journalists
ETAN: Blair Poor Choice for NI Director
Highlights
We address the racist efforts to keep Senator Roland Burris out of the Senate in the editorial above and we noted that he would appear later on CBS' Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer. He did appear and link has text and video:
Roland Burris, the former Illinois Attorney General chosen by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill out Obama's term, said this morning that according to the Illinois State Supreme Court and by other constitutional authorities, the appointment was legal.
Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation this morning, Burris also said that the documents he has submitted are in compliance with Senate Rules, and furthermore he complied with the requests of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois' senior Senator Dick Durbin to appear before the Illinois House of Representatives' impeachment committee to answer questions about Blagojevich.
Following a meeting between his attorneys and the Senate's lawyers, Burris said, "It is our position that we have done everything that's required, and that, yes, I should be seated forthwith, and I should be seated prior to the inauguration of our 44th president, a seat for which I now hold."
"I am the junior senator from the state of Illinois. There is no question of my legality of appointment," Burris told host Bob Schieffer. "Illinois has two senators. That is the law. We have two senators."
Dick Durbin appeared on the same program and made a fool out of himself and possibly opened himself up to liability with regards to other things. (No, Dick, the Senate doesn't make sure that everyone elected or appointed is qualified and fit to stand. But if you want to claim that, great. It'll be wonderful when the next Packwood emerges and the US Senate is sued for not doing the job that you claim they do: vetting every member before seating them. Making that false claim, on national television, means that the next Packwood could find the US Senate facing the same financial liabilities that the Catholic Church currently does over the crimes of some priests.) Isaiah's latest goes up after this. Kat's "Kat's Korner: The really best of Janis Ian" went up this morning. Pru notes "Medal for Tony Blair is another low for George Bush" (Great Britain's Socialist Worker):
George Bush is to award Tony Blair -- along with former Australian prime minister John Howard and Colombian president Alvaro Uribe -- with the laughingly titled Presidential Medal of Freedom.
These people have done all they can to aid Bush's attempt to increase US power around the world and have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the process.
It would be nice to think this will be Bush’s final outrageous act while in office.
But his unconditional support for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza shows that his last days as president will mean more of the policies that have had such a destructive impact on the world.
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Kat's Korner: The really best of Janis Ian
'Cause only love will matter in the end
for a woman or a man
What's the difference now
Here we live with bottles
and needles and truth
Here is your living proof
that death cannot be proud
Some say it's a judgement on us all
I can't believe that God could be that small
Kat: That's from Janis Ian's "When Angles Cry" and it's the big discovery for me from Janis' double disc release: Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection. 31 tracks. Some you will most likely already know -- like her seminal classic "At Seventeen." In fact you get that song twice -- in its original version as well as the single version. There's "Stars," a song written by a woman who feared she'd peaked too soon (her career would prove otherwise), "Jesse," "Society's Child" and "Thankyous."
For those who discovered Janis more recently and know her via 2006's Folk Is The New Black, "Joy" and "My Autobiography" make the collection. Sadly, "All Those Promises" is not among the songs represented. Mike wrote of that recording recently and only reminded me of what an amazing song and performance that was.
And it's the latter that will be the big surprise on this collection.
If you're buying a Janis collection, I'll assume you already know she's got the song writing chops and then some. And maybe after you write some of the songs she's written, your singing is naturally going to take a back seat when people discuss your art? But, more than anything else, what stands out in these 31 tracks is how talented a singer Janis is.
"Fly Too High" is a 1979 track that she collaborate on with Giorgio Moroder on. She provides the lyrics and he provides music that sounds a great deal like what would later be Donna Summer's "The Wanderer." It shows a breathy and higher range than many of us expect from Janis. There are ways she handles notes and phrases in the second verse that thrill and shock. "Society's Child," her song that captured the nation's attention, is one she can still do in concert pretty much as she sang it back then (1968). And that was a loud, ringing vocal. She's spent the decades since, exploring her vocal range, her breath control and much more.
I'm not trying to toss the songs in the back seat. I love "When Angels Cry" as much for the song as I do for the performance and I can say the same about "Arms Around My Life," "Days Like These" and "Tattoo." But, as a songwriter, I probably take for granted that Janis is going to deliver. This compilation of recordings from multiple decades should result in a re-evaluation of Janis the singer for the listener.
Now if you're not familiar with Janis, you may go to the songs first. Janis has a way with harmonies and chords that are uniquely her own and her lyric abilities will always grab your heart. But if you've been along for parts of the ride or all of the ride, you may find yourself really appreciating her vocals in a way that you wouldn't even catching her in concert.
That's because she's compiled a really dazzling selection. I will never believe it was anything but a mistake to leave off "All Those Promises" because I firmly believe it stands with the best recordings she's ever done; however, she's still managed to provide listeners with thirty-one amazing songs.
If you want to 'upgrade' the collection you can do so by also purchasing Through The Years: A Retrospective. This DVD contains 23 performances by Janis. The first three tracks are Janis with her guitar performing for a camera in the sixties and explaining (back then) her songs "Look to the Rain," "Janey's Blues" and "Friends Again." All are wonderful but the chorus of the last will both remind you of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do" and make you wonder how this missed being a hit?
"Jesse" follows with Janis performing it in 1977 for a Japanese television show. This ends the Janis and guitar segment. The next performance (also 1977) is Janis with her band and she'll alternate between guitar and piano. This ends with "The Bridge" which she performs on a n American daytime talk show. 1979's "Silly Habits" kicks off four in a row of her in concert in 1979, concluding with her classic "In The Winter."
We apologize, but we
have no video of Janis
in the 80s. To find out
why, we suggest you
buy her Autobiography...
1990 finds four songs competing for bragging rights as your personal favorite, all performed in the round and performed amazingly ("Stolen Fire," "Cosmopolitan Girl," "From Me To You" and "Days Like These"). Then comes 1994's music video "Tenderness" followed by five live concert performances from 1995 (closing with "Society's Child").
The DVD, which Stan shared his thoughts on here, is available at Janis Ian's website and you can purchase it at her concerts. We caught her in New Hampshire back in November and if you go to a concert, take money. The merchandise tables at her concerts are among the best with quality t-shirts, CDs, her book, and much more.
Which brings me back to the double disc set and to that autobiography. "2008 in books (Martha & Shirley)" went up December 30th noting Society's Child: My Autobiography ["It can be purchased at Amazon where it's currently selling for $16.98 ($26.95 list price)."] was the top pick for books in 2008 and the e-mails started coming in immediately. "Kat, when are you going to review Janis' collection?" And they only increased after my 2008 in music -- with e-mails asking, "How could you forget Janis?"
How could I forget her? I hadn't heard the collection. Sorry. When Martha and Shirley's piece went up, I knew I was going to have to listen so I grabbed C.I.'s copy New Year's Eve. It wasn't going to be mentioned in 2008's year-in-review because, if it were worth noting, it deserved more than a quick paragraph.
Now in November I saw Janis in concert. Great job, magnificent voice, wonderful stage presence. And I thought I paid attention. I was clapping, I was mouthing the words to the songs I knew (including "Watercolors" and her encore of "Jesse"). But I didn't really appreciate the versatility in her vocals or her growth as a singer until I listened to the collection. If you're familiar with her work, you know she writes an amazing song. But I really don't think she's ever gotten the credit she deserves for her fine vocals -- I certainly haven't given her that credit. Yeah, I've praised her voice but no where near enough, as one listen to Best of Janis Ian demonstrates. I hear her peers like Phoebe Snow in her vocals, I hear those who came before (especially Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald) and, most of all, I hear an a singer constantly being born, always searching.
janis ian
best of janis ian: the autobiography collection
through the years: a retrospective
society's child
mikey likes it
oh boy it never ends
kats korner
the common ills
for a woman or a man
What's the difference now
Here we live with bottles
and needles and truth
Here is your living proof
that death cannot be proud
Some say it's a judgement on us all
I can't believe that God could be that small
Kat: That's from Janis Ian's "When Angles Cry" and it's the big discovery for me from Janis' double disc release: Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection. 31 tracks. Some you will most likely already know -- like her seminal classic "At Seventeen." In fact you get that song twice -- in its original version as well as the single version. There's "Stars," a song written by a woman who feared she'd peaked too soon (her career would prove otherwise), "Jesse," "Society's Child" and "Thankyous."
For those who discovered Janis more recently and know her via 2006's Folk Is The New Black, "Joy" and "My Autobiography" make the collection. Sadly, "All Those Promises" is not among the songs represented. Mike wrote of that recording recently and only reminded me of what an amazing song and performance that was.
And it's the latter that will be the big surprise on this collection.
If you're buying a Janis collection, I'll assume you already know she's got the song writing chops and then some. And maybe after you write some of the songs she's written, your singing is naturally going to take a back seat when people discuss your art? But, more than anything else, what stands out in these 31 tracks is how talented a singer Janis is.
"Fly Too High" is a 1979 track that she collaborate on with Giorgio Moroder on. She provides the lyrics and he provides music that sounds a great deal like what would later be Donna Summer's "The Wanderer." It shows a breathy and higher range than many of us expect from Janis. There are ways she handles notes and phrases in the second verse that thrill and shock. "Society's Child," her song that captured the nation's attention, is one she can still do in concert pretty much as she sang it back then (1968). And that was a loud, ringing vocal. She's spent the decades since, exploring her vocal range, her breath control and much more.
I'm not trying to toss the songs in the back seat. I love "When Angels Cry" as much for the song as I do for the performance and I can say the same about "Arms Around My Life," "Days Like These" and "Tattoo." But, as a songwriter, I probably take for granted that Janis is going to deliver. This compilation of recordings from multiple decades should result in a re-evaluation of Janis the singer for the listener.
Now if you're not familiar with Janis, you may go to the songs first. Janis has a way with harmonies and chords that are uniquely her own and her lyric abilities will always grab your heart. But if you've been along for parts of the ride or all of the ride, you may find yourself really appreciating her vocals in a way that you wouldn't even catching her in concert.
That's because she's compiled a really dazzling selection. I will never believe it was anything but a mistake to leave off "All Those Promises" because I firmly believe it stands with the best recordings she's ever done; however, she's still managed to provide listeners with thirty-one amazing songs.
If you want to 'upgrade' the collection you can do so by also purchasing Through The Years: A Retrospective. This DVD contains 23 performances by Janis. The first three tracks are Janis with her guitar performing for a camera in the sixties and explaining (back then) her songs "Look to the Rain," "Janey's Blues" and "Friends Again." All are wonderful but the chorus of the last will both remind you of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want To Do" and make you wonder how this missed being a hit?
"Jesse" follows with Janis performing it in 1977 for a Japanese television show. This ends the Janis and guitar segment. The next performance (also 1977) is Janis with her band and she'll alternate between guitar and piano. This ends with "The Bridge" which she performs on a n American daytime talk show. 1979's "Silly Habits" kicks off four in a row of her in concert in 1979, concluding with her classic "In The Winter."
We apologize, but we
have no video of Janis
in the 80s. To find out
why, we suggest you
buy her Autobiography...
1990 finds four songs competing for bragging rights as your personal favorite, all performed in the round and performed amazingly ("Stolen Fire," "Cosmopolitan Girl," "From Me To You" and "Days Like These"). Then comes 1994's music video "Tenderness" followed by five live concert performances from 1995 (closing with "Society's Child").
The DVD, which Stan shared his thoughts on here, is available at Janis Ian's website and you can purchase it at her concerts. We caught her in New Hampshire back in November and if you go to a concert, take money. The merchandise tables at her concerts are among the best with quality t-shirts, CDs, her book, and much more.
Which brings me back to the double disc set and to that autobiography. "2008 in books (Martha & Shirley)" went up December 30th noting Society's Child: My Autobiography ["It can be purchased at Amazon where it's currently selling for $16.98 ($26.95 list price)."] was the top pick for books in 2008 and the e-mails started coming in immediately. "Kat, when are you going to review Janis' collection?" And they only increased after my 2008 in music -- with e-mails asking, "How could you forget Janis?"
How could I forget her? I hadn't heard the collection. Sorry. When Martha and Shirley's piece went up, I knew I was going to have to listen so I grabbed C.I.'s copy New Year's Eve. It wasn't going to be mentioned in 2008's year-in-review because, if it were worth noting, it deserved more than a quick paragraph.
Now in November I saw Janis in concert. Great job, magnificent voice, wonderful stage presence. And I thought I paid attention. I was clapping, I was mouthing the words to the songs I knew (including "Watercolors" and her encore of "Jesse"). But I didn't really appreciate the versatility in her vocals or her growth as a singer until I listened to the collection. If you're familiar with her work, you know she writes an amazing song. But I really don't think she's ever gotten the credit she deserves for her fine vocals -- I certainly haven't given her that credit. Yeah, I've praised her voice but no where near enough, as one listen to Best of Janis Ian demonstrates. I hear her peers like Phoebe Snow in her vocals, I hear those who came before (especially Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald) and, most of all, I hear an a singer constantly being born, always searching.
janis ian
best of janis ian: the autobiography collection
through the years: a retrospective
society's child
mikey likes it
oh boy it never ends
kats korner
the common ills
Saturday, January 10, 2009
NDI in Iraq
Yoshino and Raheem Salman's "Iraq's novice political candidates embrace campaigning" (Los Angeles Times) explores the provincial elections set to take place in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces January 31st:
Provincial council candidate Fareeq Khazaali moves through the crowds of shoppers on Mutanabi Street with the confidence and ease of a veteran politician, shaking hands and smiling, as his children, wearing homemade campaign T-shirts, distribute leaflets.
When he's not pressing the flesh, he's sending frequent text messages ("Greetings. Please elect your candidate Fareeq Khazaali.") and making friends on Facebook -- surprising political sophistication for a novice candidate in a country taking baby steps toward democracy.
As Iraq nears its provincial elections day, Jan. 31, residents are faced with ballots that could make even a seasoned voter's head spin. In total across the country, 14,400 candidates representing 407 political entities are vying for 440 seats.
[. . .]
As the candidates mingle with the public, they are easy targets for assassins. On Dec. 31, gunmen in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed a candidate in broad daylight while he was walking down the street. U.S. and Iraqi authorities have warned of a potential increase in violence as the elections near.
The reporters quote Erin Matthews . . . with the National Democratic Institute. Yes, NDI is in Iraq. Yes, once upon a time America's left would be yelling.
But they're busy drooling over Barack and, besides, Mad Maddie Albright's Barack's gal now, right? She was only a problem when she was standing next to Hillary. (Mad Maddie chairs NDI.) And War Monger Susan Rice is Barack's buddy that he's appointed to the UN. (Rice serves on the NDI board.)
Back in 2005, January 26th, the NDI was still hiding. From Karl Vick and Robin Wright's "Coaching Iraq's New Candidates, Discreetly, U.S.-Funded Programs Nurture Voting Process" (Washington Post):
Funded by U.S. taxpayers, the Baghdad office of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs stands at the ambitious heart of the American effort to make Iraq a model democracy in the Arab world. In the 13 months it has operated in the country, the institute has tutored political aspirants from all of Iraq's major parties, trained about 10,000 domestic election observers and nurtured thousands of ordinary citizens seeking to build the institutions that form the backbone of free societies.
The work is in many ways entirely routine for the institute -- as it is for the two other Washington-based organizations that are here advising on the architecture of democracy: the International Republican Institute (IRI), which declined requests for an interview, and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), which along with the United Nations is providing crucial technical assistance to Iraq's electoral commission. The groups work in scores of countries, from those in Eastern Europe to Yemen and Indonesia, and arrived in Baghdad with solid reputations for encouraging democratic norms. Together, the three have been allotted as much as $90 million for their work in Iraq.
But such is the state of Iraq less than a week before elections for the National Assembly that the Democratic Institute's instructors dare not see their names in print. "You can say, 'an official with an international organization that operates in Iraq,' " said the institute's country director, a former political operative and public relations executive who, like his boss, happens to be Canadian. He later agreed to allow the use of the organization's name.
Now Dave Lindorff can't call out today. Remember, he just knew America would change would come from "a black candidate who has risked jail by doing drugs, and who has relatives TODAY living in the Third World (Kenya)." The only change thus far has been Lindorff's sheets which suffer from nocturnal emissions (more commonly known as "wet dreams"). But in 2004, when Lindorff wasn't completely insane, he could object. From his "DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections" (CounterPunch):
What, I'd like to know, was the Democratic Party, which has demonstrated an uncanny ability to lose elections it should be able to win handily here in America, doing spending $40 million in U.S. taxpayers' dollars "helping" people and organizations in other countries to compete in elections to overturn incumbent governments overseas?
It turns out that even as it was blowing the presidential election in the U.S., an arm of the Democratic Party, the so called National Democratic Institute, was busy over the last year spending tens of millions of dollars provided by the State Department to help the opposition in the Ukraine to challenge the government party in that former Soviet state. (A similar Republican Party organization, the Republican International Institute, was doing the same thing with more State Department money. ) Some of that help was itself of questionable legality, which is why it was all done covertly.
Does anyone else see the huge irony and hypocrisy here?
The opposition party in the U.S. was actually working hand in glove with the government (and with the Republican Party!) in a subversive foreign policy effort of the Bush administration even as its chosen presidential candidate and nominal party leader, John Kerry, was campaigning against the foreign policy and foreign policy establishment of the Bush administration as inept and untrustworthy.
It takes nothing away from the students and workers of the Ukraine who took to the streets and overturned the results of a corrupt election to say that citizens in America, and especially people who call themselves members of the Democratic Party, should be outraged that they and their party, the victims of fraud and voter abuse at home, were engaged in some of the same kinds of subterfuges overseas that GOP operatives and Republican-led election bureaucracies were using against them here at home.
And, of course, they've been all in Venezuela's business. From Australia's Venezuela Solidarity Network's "Human Rights Watch report on Venezuela: An echo of US propaganda:"
Despite its failure so far to even put a dent in the massive popular support for Chavez and the revolution in Venezuela, the US establishment continues to funnel millions of dollars to Venezuelan opposition groups to try to destabilise the government. The publicly acknowledged component of this funding is channelled through so-called "non-government organisations" in Venezuela (such as SUMATE, whose leader, Corina Machado, endorsed the unsuccessful 2002 coup against Chavez) from bastions of the US Right including USAID, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, the Centre for International Private Enterprise and, of course, the National Endowment for Democracy.
Or you can see Michael Barker's "Hijacking Human Rights" (ZNet):
For activists and researchers familiar with the Ford Foundation's elitist and anti-democratic history, this in itself should start alarm bells ringing as to the political motivations guiding the financial support which helped bring about HRW's existence.[15] This is because the Ford Foundation's backing of HRW is consistent with 'democratic' changes occurring within the US foreign policy elites thinking in the 1970s, which was beginning to recognise the importance of soft-power in promoting American hegemony. These changes were no doubt informed by the political experiences gained by the political elites running liberal philanthropic foundations (like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations'), which in 1984 eventually led to the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). Ironically, these groups carry out the same disruptive work that the CIA and USAID are well known for, yet under the protective rhetoric of democracy and peace.[16] However, the type of democracy promoted by these organisations is best referred to as low-intensity democracy, or polyarchy.
While only one study has exposed the anti-democratic orientation of the USIP, far more studies (especially more recently) have laid bare the 'democracy' promoting practices of the NED and its cohorts - it's four primary grantees being the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Center for International Private Enterprise, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.[17] The seminal study examining the NED is Professor Robinson's Promoting Polyarchy: he notes that:
"[T]he NED was created in the highest echelons of the US national security state, as part of the same project that led to the illegal operations of the Iran-Contra scandal. It is organically integrated into the overall execution of US national security and foreign policy. In structure, organization, and operation, it is closer to clandestine and national security organs such as the CIA than apolitical or humanitarian endowments as its name would suggest. The NED has operated in tandem with all major interventionist undertakings in the 1980s and 1990s."[18]
As the latter part of this study will illustrate, some of HRW's Americas Advisory Board are directly promoting the agenda of the NED-linked 'democracy' establishment, while many others are closely linked to its most influential proponents. For reasons of concision, however, the author has chosen to focus predominantly on the 'democratic' affiliations of HRW's Americas Advisory Board members, and so does not concentrate on each individual's links to what appear to be genuinely democratic organizations. This decision has been taken because the primary purpose of this essay is to draw attention to the close interlocks that exist between the human rights and the 'democracy promoting' communities. That many of the people working with HRW are also invited to work with progressive groups' is a given (especially considering the lack of attention paid to their activities), but this should surely also indicate the depth of the problem facing progressive activists who endeavour to promote a democracy based on participatory principles, not imperialism. (In most cases progressive links are not highlighted, although many of them can be found at SourceWatch.)
And while NDI can be in Iraq, true democracy can't. al-Maliki's reign has seen repeated, high-levels of abuse aimed at the press. It's been spread out for nearly three years so many have looked the other way. But don't forget, following the crackdown (when the Green Zone was almost breached in 2006), he came up with 'his' multi-point plan (the plan was largely what local areas had already implemented) to which he added a direct attack on the press. The plan -- like every other promise he makes -- never got implemented. But his hostility and disdain for the press was there in writing. And his attitude has flourished and been embraced by so many others. So it's no surprise that the provincial elections are coming with press restrictions. From yesterday's snapshot: " Kim Gamel (AP) reports that other 'laws' are being pressed. Specifically the puppet government has issued a 14-page conduct code for reporters -- Iraqi and foreign -- that they will need to sign 'in exchange for permission to attend this month's provincial elections, riaisng concerns among media analysts that independent coverage could be undermined'." This morning, Khalid al-Ansary, Tim Cocks and Katie Nguyen (Reuters) report:
Media organisations who flout the Communications and Media Commission's mandatory code of conduct could be landed with a fine, have their equipment confiscated or be forced to make a public apology, said a document obtained by Reuters on Saturday.
"When covering activities of any political entity or any candidate, media outlets should not deliberately pervert the information ... or hide it or fabricate it," the document said.
"In dealing with ... political alliances and candidates, media should not be biased towards any."
Media organisations could have their licences revoked if they fail to pay any fines, according to the document.
Also covering the elections is Jessica Ramirez' "Stumping For Sunnis And Shiites and Kurds. Electioneering in Iraq is still a work in progress." (Newsweek):
Ibrahim al-Jaafari believes in old-style campaign tactics--like paying off tribal blood debts. That's one way the former interim prime minister has wooed votes for his National Reform Trend Party's candidates in Iraq's Jan. 31 provincial elections. Back in October 2006, at the height of Iraq's sectarian slaughter, 14 Shiite laborers were killed by Sunni extremists at a fake checkpoint north of Baghdad on land belonging to the Jabouri, a Sunni tribe. The ensuing religious vendetta left more than 100 members of both sects dead before the killings stopped.
The trouble wasn't over even then. Under Iraqi tradition, the tribe had failed to protect the laborers who were in its territory and thus owed a blood debt to their families. The Jabouri blamed Al Qaeda for the original killings and wouldn't pay. But Jaafari settled things by putting up 15 million Iraqi dinars in compensation for each victim, roughly $180,000 total. "All the people in the area now respect him," says Sheik Behjat Abdul Majid, who heads a local council that handles tribal issues. "If he needs any support, then we will all support him."
The upcoming election--the first of four planned for this year in Iraq--has more than 14,000 candidates campaigning as hard as they can, with one foot in the country's future and the other planted deep in the past. Most have no hope of winning, since only 440 provincial council seats are at stake. But the outcome is of far more than local importance. For one thing, it could begin to correct the underrepresentation of Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the 2005 elections.
And Pamela E. Walck's "Soldier's body found at Fort Stewart" (Savanah Now) reports:
Officials with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart confirmed that the body of a soldier assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit was found Friday morning in his barracks.
"That's all the information we can release because next of kin still needs to be notified," said 3rd ID spokesman Maj. Lee Peters late Friday afternoon.
The following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:
Cedric's Big Mix
Leslie & Tom's Big Adventure (in Loserville)
57 minutes ago
The Daily Jot
THIS JUST IN! TOM AND LESLIE'S INTERESTING ADVENTURES!
57 minutes ago
The Common Ills
Leslie and Tom, the Peace Saboteurs
1 hour ago
Mikey Likes It!
Idiot of the week (Zirin) and more
14 hours ago
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
gaza
14 hours ago
SICKOFITRADLZ
Seat Senator Roland Burris!
14 hours ago
Thomas Friedman is a Great Man
Senator Burris and moving
14 hours ago
Trina's Kitchen
Egg Drop Soup in the Kitchen
14 hours ago
Ruth's Report
Gaza
14 hours ago
Oh Boy It Never Ends
Senator Burris and The Heiress
14 hours ago
Like Maria Said Paz
Glen Ford
14 hours ago
Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
Michael Winship and my chatter post
14 hours ago
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
the los angeles times
kimi yoshino
raheem salman
the washington post
karl vick
robin wright
dave lindorff
michael barker
tim cocks
khalid al-ansary
katie nguyen
jessica ramirez
pamela e. walck
like maria said paz
kats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
thomas friedman is a great man
trinas kitchen
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
ruths report
sickofitradlz
oh boy it never ends
Provincial council candidate Fareeq Khazaali moves through the crowds of shoppers on Mutanabi Street with the confidence and ease of a veteran politician, shaking hands and smiling, as his children, wearing homemade campaign T-shirts, distribute leaflets.
When he's not pressing the flesh, he's sending frequent text messages ("Greetings. Please elect your candidate Fareeq Khazaali.") and making friends on Facebook -- surprising political sophistication for a novice candidate in a country taking baby steps toward democracy.
As Iraq nears its provincial elections day, Jan. 31, residents are faced with ballots that could make even a seasoned voter's head spin. In total across the country, 14,400 candidates representing 407 political entities are vying for 440 seats.
[. . .]
As the candidates mingle with the public, they are easy targets for assassins. On Dec. 31, gunmen in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed a candidate in broad daylight while he was walking down the street. U.S. and Iraqi authorities have warned of a potential increase in violence as the elections near.
The reporters quote Erin Matthews . . . with the National Democratic Institute. Yes, NDI is in Iraq. Yes, once upon a time America's left would be yelling.
But they're busy drooling over Barack and, besides, Mad Maddie Albright's Barack's gal now, right? She was only a problem when she was standing next to Hillary. (Mad Maddie chairs NDI.) And War Monger Susan Rice is Barack's buddy that he's appointed to the UN. (Rice serves on the NDI board.)
Back in 2005, January 26th, the NDI was still hiding. From Karl Vick and Robin Wright's "Coaching Iraq's New Candidates, Discreetly, U.S.-Funded Programs Nurture Voting Process" (Washington Post):
Funded by U.S. taxpayers, the Baghdad office of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs stands at the ambitious heart of the American effort to make Iraq a model democracy in the Arab world. In the 13 months it has operated in the country, the institute has tutored political aspirants from all of Iraq's major parties, trained about 10,000 domestic election observers and nurtured thousands of ordinary citizens seeking to build the institutions that form the backbone of free societies.
The work is in many ways entirely routine for the institute -- as it is for the two other Washington-based organizations that are here advising on the architecture of democracy: the International Republican Institute (IRI), which declined requests for an interview, and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), which along with the United Nations is providing crucial technical assistance to Iraq's electoral commission. The groups work in scores of countries, from those in Eastern Europe to Yemen and Indonesia, and arrived in Baghdad with solid reputations for encouraging democratic norms. Together, the three have been allotted as much as $90 million for their work in Iraq.
But such is the state of Iraq less than a week before elections for the National Assembly that the Democratic Institute's instructors dare not see their names in print. "You can say, 'an official with an international organization that operates in Iraq,' " said the institute's country director, a former political operative and public relations executive who, like his boss, happens to be Canadian. He later agreed to allow the use of the organization's name.
Now Dave Lindorff can't call out today. Remember, he just knew America would change would come from "a black candidate who has risked jail by doing drugs, and who has relatives TODAY living in the Third World (Kenya)." The only change thus far has been Lindorff's sheets which suffer from nocturnal emissions (more commonly known as "wet dreams"). But in 2004, when Lindorff wasn't completely insane, he could object. From his "DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections" (CounterPunch):
What, I'd like to know, was the Democratic Party, which has demonstrated an uncanny ability to lose elections it should be able to win handily here in America, doing spending $40 million in U.S. taxpayers' dollars "helping" people and organizations in other countries to compete in elections to overturn incumbent governments overseas?
It turns out that even as it was blowing the presidential election in the U.S., an arm of the Democratic Party, the so called National Democratic Institute, was busy over the last year spending tens of millions of dollars provided by the State Department to help the opposition in the Ukraine to challenge the government party in that former Soviet state. (A similar Republican Party organization, the Republican International Institute, was doing the same thing with more State Department money. ) Some of that help was itself of questionable legality, which is why it was all done covertly.
Does anyone else see the huge irony and hypocrisy here?
The opposition party in the U.S. was actually working hand in glove with the government (and with the Republican Party!) in a subversive foreign policy effort of the Bush administration even as its chosen presidential candidate and nominal party leader, John Kerry, was campaigning against the foreign policy and foreign policy establishment of the Bush administration as inept and untrustworthy.
It takes nothing away from the students and workers of the Ukraine who took to the streets and overturned the results of a corrupt election to say that citizens in America, and especially people who call themselves members of the Democratic Party, should be outraged that they and their party, the victims of fraud and voter abuse at home, were engaged in some of the same kinds of subterfuges overseas that GOP operatives and Republican-led election bureaucracies were using against them here at home.
And, of course, they've been all in Venezuela's business. From Australia's Venezuela Solidarity Network's "Human Rights Watch report on Venezuela: An echo of US propaganda:"
Despite its failure so far to even put a dent in the massive popular support for Chavez and the revolution in Venezuela, the US establishment continues to funnel millions of dollars to Venezuelan opposition groups to try to destabilise the government. The publicly acknowledged component of this funding is channelled through so-called "non-government organisations" in Venezuela (such as SUMATE, whose leader, Corina Machado, endorsed the unsuccessful 2002 coup against Chavez) from bastions of the US Right including USAID, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, the Centre for International Private Enterprise and, of course, the National Endowment for Democracy.
Or you can see Michael Barker's "Hijacking Human Rights" (ZNet):
For activists and researchers familiar with the Ford Foundation's elitist and anti-democratic history, this in itself should start alarm bells ringing as to the political motivations guiding the financial support which helped bring about HRW's existence.[15] This is because the Ford Foundation's backing of HRW is consistent with 'democratic' changes occurring within the US foreign policy elites thinking in the 1970s, which was beginning to recognise the importance of soft-power in promoting American hegemony. These changes were no doubt informed by the political experiences gained by the political elites running liberal philanthropic foundations (like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations'), which in 1984 eventually led to the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). Ironically, these groups carry out the same disruptive work that the CIA and USAID are well known for, yet under the protective rhetoric of democracy and peace.[16] However, the type of democracy promoted by these organisations is best referred to as low-intensity democracy, or polyarchy.
While only one study has exposed the anti-democratic orientation of the USIP, far more studies (especially more recently) have laid bare the 'democracy' promoting practices of the NED and its cohorts - it's four primary grantees being the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the Center for International Private Enterprise, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.[17] The seminal study examining the NED is Professor Robinson's Promoting Polyarchy: he notes that:
"[T]he NED was created in the highest echelons of the US national security state, as part of the same project that led to the illegal operations of the Iran-Contra scandal. It is organically integrated into the overall execution of US national security and foreign policy. In structure, organization, and operation, it is closer to clandestine and national security organs such as the CIA than apolitical or humanitarian endowments as its name would suggest. The NED has operated in tandem with all major interventionist undertakings in the 1980s and 1990s."[18]
As the latter part of this study will illustrate, some of HRW's Americas Advisory Board are directly promoting the agenda of the NED-linked 'democracy' establishment, while many others are closely linked to its most influential proponents. For reasons of concision, however, the author has chosen to focus predominantly on the 'democratic' affiliations of HRW's Americas Advisory Board members, and so does not concentrate on each individual's links to what appear to be genuinely democratic organizations. This decision has been taken because the primary purpose of this essay is to draw attention to the close interlocks that exist between the human rights and the 'democracy promoting' communities. That many of the people working with HRW are also invited to work with progressive groups' is a given (especially considering the lack of attention paid to their activities), but this should surely also indicate the depth of the problem facing progressive activists who endeavour to promote a democracy based on participatory principles, not imperialism. (In most cases progressive links are not highlighted, although many of them can be found at SourceWatch.)
And while NDI can be in Iraq, true democracy can't. al-Maliki's reign has seen repeated, high-levels of abuse aimed at the press. It's been spread out for nearly three years so many have looked the other way. But don't forget, following the crackdown (when the Green Zone was almost breached in 2006), he came up with 'his' multi-point plan (the plan was largely what local areas had already implemented) to which he added a direct attack on the press. The plan -- like every other promise he makes -- never got implemented. But his hostility and disdain for the press was there in writing. And his attitude has flourished and been embraced by so many others. So it's no surprise that the provincial elections are coming with press restrictions. From yesterday's snapshot: " Kim Gamel (AP) reports that other 'laws' are being pressed. Specifically the puppet government has issued a 14-page conduct code for reporters -- Iraqi and foreign -- that they will need to sign 'in exchange for permission to attend this month's provincial elections, riaisng concerns among media analysts that independent coverage could be undermined'." This morning, Khalid al-Ansary, Tim Cocks and Katie Nguyen (Reuters) report:
Media organisations who flout the Communications and Media Commission's mandatory code of conduct could be landed with a fine, have their equipment confiscated or be forced to make a public apology, said a document obtained by Reuters on Saturday.
"When covering activities of any political entity or any candidate, media outlets should not deliberately pervert the information ... or hide it or fabricate it," the document said.
"In dealing with ... political alliances and candidates, media should not be biased towards any."
Media organisations could have their licences revoked if they fail to pay any fines, according to the document.
Also covering the elections is Jessica Ramirez' "Stumping For Sunnis And Shiites and Kurds. Electioneering in Iraq is still a work in progress." (Newsweek):
Ibrahim al-Jaafari believes in old-style campaign tactics--like paying off tribal blood debts. That's one way the former interim prime minister has wooed votes for his National Reform Trend Party's candidates in Iraq's Jan. 31 provincial elections. Back in October 2006, at the height of Iraq's sectarian slaughter, 14 Shiite laborers were killed by Sunni extremists at a fake checkpoint north of Baghdad on land belonging to the Jabouri, a Sunni tribe. The ensuing religious vendetta left more than 100 members of both sects dead before the killings stopped.
The trouble wasn't over even then. Under Iraqi tradition, the tribe had failed to protect the laborers who were in its territory and thus owed a blood debt to their families. The Jabouri blamed Al Qaeda for the original killings and wouldn't pay. But Jaafari settled things by putting up 15 million Iraqi dinars in compensation for each victim, roughly $180,000 total. "All the people in the area now respect him," says Sheik Behjat Abdul Majid, who heads a local council that handles tribal issues. "If he needs any support, then we will all support him."
The upcoming election--the first of four planned for this year in Iraq--has more than 14,000 candidates campaigning as hard as they can, with one foot in the country's future and the other planted deep in the past. Most have no hope of winning, since only 440 provincial council seats are at stake. But the outcome is of far more than local importance. For one thing, it could begin to correct the underrepresentation of Sunni Arabs, many of whom boycotted the 2005 elections.
And Pamela E. Walck's "Soldier's body found at Fort Stewart" (Savanah Now) reports:
Officials with the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart confirmed that the body of a soldier assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit was found Friday morning in his barracks.
"That's all the information we can release because next of kin still needs to be notified," said 3rd ID spokesman Maj. Lee Peters late Friday afternoon.
The following community sites have updated since yesterday morning:
Cedric's Big Mix
Leslie & Tom's Big Adventure (in Loserville)
57 minutes ago
The Daily Jot
THIS JUST IN! TOM AND LESLIE'S INTERESTING ADVENTURES!
57 minutes ago
The Common Ills
Leslie and Tom, the Peace Saboteurs
1 hour ago
Mikey Likes It!
Idiot of the week (Zirin) and more
14 hours ago
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
gaza
14 hours ago
SICKOFITRADLZ
Seat Senator Roland Burris!
14 hours ago
Thomas Friedman is a Great Man
Senator Burris and moving
14 hours ago
Trina's Kitchen
Egg Drop Soup in the Kitchen
14 hours ago
Ruth's Report
Gaza
14 hours ago
Oh Boy It Never Ends
Senator Burris and The Heiress
14 hours ago
Like Maria Said Paz
Glen Ford
14 hours ago
Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
Michael Winship and my chatter post
14 hours ago
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
the los angeles times
kimi yoshino
raheem salman
the washington post
karl vick
robin wright
dave lindorff
michael barker
tim cocks
khalid al-ansary
katie nguyen
jessica ramirez
pamela e. walck
like maria said paz
kats korner
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
thomas friedman is a great man
trinas kitchen
the daily jot
cedrics big mix
mikey likes it
ruths report
sickofitradlz
oh boy it never ends
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