BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O IS SO UNPOPULAR AND HAS DONE SUCH A BAD JOB THAT EVEN JOE BIDEN IS SAYING RE-ELECTION IS GOING TO BE TOUGH.
AS THE SEPTEMBER DATA ROLLS OUT AND AMERICA LEARNS THAT THE JOBLESS RATE REMAINS AT 9.1%, THINGS ARE SO BAD FOR AMERICA'S PRINCESS THAT EVEN JIMMY CARTER, THE ONE-TERM PRESIDENT, FEELS THE NEED TO GIVE BARRY O ADVICE AND SUGGEST THAT THE AMERICAN PRINCESS LIVE UP TO THE SPEECHES HE MADE WHILE RUNNING FOR OFFICE.
MEANWHILE THE INCREASINGLY POPULAR OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS ARE SOMETHING BARRY O WANTS TO LATCH ONTO BUT ACTIVISTS ARE MAKING IT CLEAR THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
AS ONE OBSERVER NOTED OF BARRY O'S PRESIDENCY, "IT'S ALL PAIN, NO GAIN."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Carlos Granda (KABC -- link has text and video) reports, "About 150 people gathered and prayed at La Placita Catholic Church, and then went on a march through downtown Los Angeles. The group, called the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, is calling for the withdrawal of all troops and private contractors from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Th group is also asking for an end to drone attacks and to redirect all funding for wars to jobs, education, health care and housing." AP notes 14 were arrested "for blocking taffic." That was the plan as explained last week on KPFK's The Lawyer's Guild with Jim Lafferty (7:00 p.m. PST every Thursday; 52 days left in the KPFK archives), Jim spoke with Shakeel Syad about an upcoming action:
Jim Lafferty: And now we're going to turn our attention to activists around the question of the war. We're coming up now to the 10th anniversary of course of the war in Afghanistan and there's a war in Iraq and a war in Pakistan and what have you. And there's a wonderful group in town, the Interfaith Clergy United for Justice and Peace. They've been active in the anti-war movement and social justice movement for some time now. And they are going to hold an action on the 10th anniversary of the war, that's next Friday October 7th, which will include both peaceful and legal protest and a parade and speeches and what have you. But they're also putting into it a feature of civil disobedience and joining us on the air to explain all that my guest is Shakeel Syed. He is the executive director of the Shura Council Mosques of Southern California, that's simply a coalition of the mosques here in southern California. Mr. Syed is one of this nation's really, really great true religious leaders and activists for for peace and social justice and especially I think for religious tolerance. Shakeel Syed, welcome back to the Lawyers Guild Show.
Shakeel Syed: Thanks for inviting me, Jim.
Jim Lafferty: As always. No, no, it's my pleasure. So next Friday, you and as many as a dozen of other members of Clergy United for Justice and Peace and some others who may not be clergy members but are part of that religious community are prepared to get arrested in protest of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why?
Shakeel Syed: Gosh, I think this is an imperative for people of conscience to remind ourselves and our fellow citizens that for ten consecutive years we have been killing innocent people and getting our young men and women killed while destroying our treasure, whatever little is left, and having people like Rose [Gudiel whose story was covered in the first segment of the show] get evicted and so it is time that people should rise up. We are only 24 or 25 people who will be doing this civil disobedience on October 7th in downtown LA but I hope and pray that there would be a mass uprising throughout the country in fact to remind the country, remind the nation, remind our political leaders that we are not going to forget the misadventures of our state.
LAist notes, "The protest, which incorporated religious leaders from many faiths, was scheduled to go from 9 a.m. until noon. Participants planned to engage in civil disobedience as they march from La Placita Church at 535 N. Main St to the downtown Federal Building, where a blessing was planned." Corey Moore and Larry Mantle (KPCC) report, "Protesters spoke from the platform of a truck where labor leaders, Occupy L.A. demonstrators and others denounced the war. They said money should be going to jobs and schools, not bombs."
In Baghdad today, protests took place. The Great Iraqi Revolution notes that chants included, "America Out, Baghdad will always be Free." Aswat al-Iraq notes the activists were "demanding an end to corruption, unemployment and provision of services." Click here and here for video of the protest in Baghdad.
In other news, Al Rafidayn reports concern building over the fact that, as the headline notes, Baghdad is on top of a giant basin of oil but little water and the paper notes efforts are underway to address the potential scarcity of water in the future. Water is an issue in Iraq for many reasons including the lack of potable water (water that is safe to drink) in much of Iraq and also the water issues they have with Turkey (predominately issues of dams preventing the flow of waterways) and Iran (salt polluting the water ways). With so few aquifiers in that region (and Saudi Arabia sitting on several), the government of Iraq must be very worried about what happens in the future, especially if the world moves away from oil as the primary energy source and/or the price of oil drops. New Sabah notes concern in the Ministry of Energy over the decline in the price of oil currently ($90 a barrel in the article; $83 per barrel currently according to AP) and that there might be an emergeny meeting of OPEC to address crude production. This as Baser News reports that the Ministry of Health states that as much as 50% of the water in Baghdad is polluted. And it's not just water in Baghdad that has pollutants. At the end of 2007, Luke Mitchell reported for Harper's magazine from Iraq:
This was in a particularly empty patch of desert beyond even the lonely cinder-block houses and the rock-throwing kids. We had sped past dry concrete canals and abandoned oil drums and rocket-charred tanks, past mile upon mile of flat dirt and rust, and then we found ourselves drving between a series of mirror-black ponds. These pools crept along both sides of the highway, and through the scratchy ballistic glass of our SUV it was hard to tell at first if the liquid within was oil or water. There were no ripples, though -- the pools were thick -- and the hot asphalt smell was strong enough that it had become a taste. Same said the oil came from leaky pipes, that there is no EPA watching over Rumaila. "You have to gve the devil his due here," he said, meaning Iraq. "On a good day, they export 60,000 to 70,000 barrels an hour. If 500 barrels of crude spill on the ground here, what is that? Not more than a half minute of export."
[. . .]
Sam said the groundwater in Rumaila is so salty and alkaline that if you put it in your mouth you would gag and probably throw up.
The water issues are issues a real leader would address and do so quickly. Meanwhile, Iraq's had Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister for five years and no progress on that or any other issue.
Despite his do nothing approach in his first term from 2006 to 2010, Nouri didn't want to give up the post as prime minister. And even though his political slate came in second in the elections, he refused to surrender the post thereby creating Political Stalemate I which lasted over eight months. Al Mada reports that Ayad Allawi, leader of Iraqiya which came in first in the March 2010 elections, announced yesterday that he was no longer going to seek to head the security council. The security council? Never created. The Erbil Agreement, which allowed Nouri al-Maliki to remain as prime minister, was supposed to, among other things, create an independent security council and Allawi was supposed to head it. After Nouri got what he wanted out of the agreement, he went back on his word and trashed the agreement. The Kurds and Iraqiya and the National Alliance have been calling for a return to the Erbil Agreement.
In his statements yesterday, Allawi decried the policies of the government currently and noted the "rampant corruption" taking place. He said there is no partnership nationally and noted the failure to implement the Erbil Agreement. As mixed up and messed up as he sees the national scene currently, he also stated that Iraq's relations with other countries and within the region was being harmed by the current approach of the current government (Nouri).
In his statements yesterday, Allawi decried the policies of the government currently and noted the "rampant corruption" taking place. He said there is no partnership nationally and noted the failure to implement the Erbil Agreement. As mixed up and messed up as he sees the national scene currently, he also stated that Iraq's relations with other countries and within the region was being harmed by the current approach of the current government (Nouri).
As Sheikh (Dar Addustour) notes of the Tuesday meet up at President Jalal Talabani's home, that Iraqis were expecting the governmental issues to be discussed but instead the meeting became solely about US troops remaining in Iraq (which they agreed to). He writes of failed opportunities and of a pattern of sewing dissatisfaction and mistrust. Al Sabaah notes that to address the immunity that the political blocs were not willing to grant in that meeting, the notion of an umbrella of immunity under some agreement between Iraq and NATO could take place. But MP Shaun Mohamed Taha tells the paper that the best thing to do would be for Iraq and the US to reach an agreement and save any NATO agreement for a last resort. Al Mannarah, Iraq's independent newspapers, speaks with sources who state that Nouri had already promised the US White House that US troops would remain in Iraq before the Tuesday meet-up at Jalal's house (and Nouri had already promised it, they are right) and that if the blocs had rejected the US military presence beyond 2011, he had promised to sign a memorandum of understanding with the US which would allow US soldiers (billed as "trainers") to remain in Iraq. It's said that Nouri and the US are tossing around the number 5,000 (number of US service members to remain in Iraq) and this in addition to any under the State Dept's banner who might be needed to guard the embassy. Al Sabaah is reporting that the Parliament's Security and Defense Commission has reached a decision about those non-"trainers" (US soldiers) and when they should leave. Committee Chair Hassan Sinead issued a statement saying they should leave by November 11th. Per the Status Of Forces Agreement, they should have until December 31, 2011. Sinead is also insisting that, if soldiers are staying, a deal be made quickly. His announcement may be, in part, an effort to move the process along. (A bluff to move the process along.)
Viola Gienger (Bloomberg News) reports, "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iraqi leaders must give the U.S. certain legal protections for its forces in Iraq under any agreement to leave some troops behind after this year." Chris Carroll (Stars and Stripes) reports speaks with national security expert Anthony Cordesman about the issue of immunity and, "Cordesman said the United States and Iraq might not ink a Status of Forces Agreement that explicitly gives troops immunity like the 2008 document now in effect, but there would at least be some agreement to effectively shield U.S. troops, while providing political cover for Iraqi leaders."
Super summer sugar croppin'
In the mornin'
Do you shoppin' baby
Love my lovething
Super ride inside my lovething
You may leave the fair
But you'll be back I swear
Would you love to love me baby?
I would love to love you baby now
Would you love to love me baby?
I would love to love you baby now
I keep hearin' mother cryin'
I keep hearin' daddy through his grave
"Little girl, of all the daughters
You were born a woman
Not a slave"
Oh I hate my winsome lover
Tell him I've had others
At my breast
And only now am I a virgin
I confess
-- "The Confession," written by Laura Nyro, first appears on her Eli & The Thirteenth Confession
Making like the late Laura Nyro today, offering one confession after another was Tim Arango and Michael S. Schmidt. Key confession from these New York Times writers?
And this June, Mr. Obama spoke by telephone with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and indicated he was willing to leave nearly 10,000 troops, according to a Western diplomat and an Iraqi official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions had been private.
'It's the miltiary, acting all on their own, those mean generals!, and maybe Leon Panetta too, that keep pushing to prolong the US military presence in Iraq. It's not Barack. He needs to speak up so that these generals know he's not for this.' You've heard that delusion on programs like Flashpoints Radio (from guests, Dennis Bernstein's not crazy enough to spout that himself) and Democracy Now! and read it at places like The Nation and ZNet. It's apparently the first song in the hymnal of the Cult of St. Barack -- has to be the first one, it's sung so often. (I believe the title is "He's Not Responsible" and it comes right before "It's All Bush's Fault" and "He's Only Been President For ____.") It was never true.
There was not a rogue State Dept or rogue branch of the military working behind Barack's back. This is what he's always wanted. But the press likes to give Barack cover and he has to reach a 55% disapproval rating for the press to decide to provide a little truth (a little well known truth).
It's Barack's war and it's been his war for some time now. Since he rebranded it "Operation New Dawn" just over a year ago, 60 US service members have died, 36 of those in combat (this despite his claim that "combat operations" had ended).
Arango and Schmidt speak to a few Iraqis. We'll ignore the college student -- normally, we'd grab him for the quote -- because the paper's never been at a loss to quote Iraqis in favor of the US is staying in their country. Instead we'll note Hamid al-Mutlaq ("a lawmaker"), "The Iraqi people won't forget what they were subjected to, such as killing, hunger and displacement. The atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison remain in their memory."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
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