Friday, April 11, 2014

Jay Newton-Small can't help loving that man

BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

TIME MAGAZINE'S JAY NEWTON-SMALL JUST GOT A NEW VIBRATOR, A REALLY BIG ONE, AND HE'S DUBBED IT "EL TORO."

TAKING IT FOR A TEST RUN, HE CHURNED OUT SOME FAN FICTION ON HIS WET DREAM BARRY O.

"AFTER SIX YEARS," NEWTON-SMALL TYPED WITH ONE HAND WHILE HE WORKED "EL TORO" IN AND OUT WITH THE OTHER, "OBAMA DRAWS COMPARISONS LIKE NO OTHER PRESIDENT."

POSSIBLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT HE'S GOT NO REAL CORE AND NO SPINE, THAT HE IS TO POLITICS WHAT MADONNA IS TO MUSIC:  POPULAR BUT NOTHING OF LASTING VALUE?

WHO KNOWS HOW JAY'S SLASH FICTION WILL END BUT A WORD OF CAUTION.

TYPING WITH JUST ONE HAND CAN LEAD TO TYPOS AND "OSAMA" AND "OBAMA" HAVE ONLY ONE LETTER DIFFERENCE SO BE CAREFUL -- ONE LETTER COULD SPELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAPPY ORGASM OR PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT.

AND CONGRATULATIONS, JAY, ON "EL TORO,' MAY YOUR RELATIONSHIP LAST AS LONG AS THE DURACELL BATTERIES REQUIRED BUT NOT INCLUDED.




FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Kenneth Pollack offered an idiotic analysis last week.  I'm used to whorish American 'analysts' who pin all the blame on the government of Iran and ignore what the US government is done so this wasn't all that surprising:

Iran wields considerable influence in Iraq, unquestionably more than any other foreign country and far more than the United States.  It was Iran that ultimately engineered Nuri al-Maliki’s re-election as prime minister in 2010 by strong-arming the Sadrists to back him.  It was the Iranians who preserved his rule in 2012 by convincing Jalal Talabani to refuse demands to call for a vote of no-confidence—a vote that Maliki seemed likely to lose. 

Pollack is with Brookings and to their credit and his credit they at least pay attention to Iraq but I'm just not able to stomach the whoring.

Iran's government probably was involved in the decision and certainly the First Lady of Iraq makes pilgrimages to Iran all the time.  However, as Americans, we should be holding our own government accountable.

And Pollack doesn't have any desire to do that.  The US government was all over Talabani to prevent the vote against Nouri from taking place.  They pressured him with face-to-face visits, they pressured with phone pleas (including from Vice President Joe Biden).  We covered all of this in real time.  It's nearly two years later and Pollack won't cover it but will point out that Iran supposedly pressured Talabani (I don't doubt that they did but I don't know that they did -- I do from State Dept friends that the US government pressured Talabani -- the same way I know that the State Dept asked for net censorship and got it and we'll probably be writing about that here in a few days).

The no-confidence vote was an attempt to oust Nouri.

Why?

Because the US government demanded Nouri get a second term as prime minister even those his State of Law lost the 2010 parliamentary elections to Ayad Allawi.  How did they do that?

They brokered an extra-constitutional contract (The Erbil Agreement).  The US told the leaders of the political blocs that Nouri had refused to step down for 8 months following the 2010 election and he could go for 8 months more.  As Nouri refused to step down, the government was at a standstill (this is the political stalemate) and the US flattered the egos of the leaders telling them they were the bigger persons and that they could do what was right for Iraq and sign this legally binding contract and let the country move forward.
Now that was playing to their egos and flattering them.  That didn't get to sign over a second term to Nouri. To get that, their had to be quid pro quo.  So, for example, to get the Kurds on board, it was written into the contract that Article 140 of the Constitution (which would resolve who gets Kirkuk -- the KRG or the central government out of Baghdad).

All of these various promises were written into The Erbil Agreement and Nouri put his binding signature to it like every political bloc leader.  Nouri used the contract to get his second term.  He immediately then said it couldn't be implemented immediately.

He stalled on delivering his end of the promises.  That was November 2010.  By the summer of 2011, cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr, the Kurds and Iraqiya were publicly calling for Nouri to implement the rest of the contact -- the part of it where he kept his promises to them.

At this point, Nouri's spokesperson starts the contract wasn't legal.

As Nouri continued to refuse to implement his end of the contract, pleas were made for the US government to help -- this contract was sold with the backing of the White House ("the full backing," Talabani was told). The pleas fell on deaf ears.  As the contract was still not implemented at the start of 2012, the Constitutional measure of a no-confidence vote was raised.  By April, Moqtada had signed onto the notion.  He repeatedly stated in public that Nouri could end the move towards a vote at any point by implementing The Erbil Agreement.

They began gathering signatures and got enough.  The signatures then go to the President (Jalal) who forwards them onto the Parliament.

Under intense pressure from the US government -- and, Pollack says, from the Iranian government -- Jalal invented these 'powers' where he was supposed to vet signatures.  He wasn't.  Nor was he supposed to say, "You did sign it?  Okay, would you sign it now?  Are you really, really sure?"  He trashed the signatures.

Then he ran to Germany, pretending he had a serious medical problem.

As we were noting last week, call it karma, call it the universe, whatever, it has a way of slapping back.

Jalal had elective knee surgery.  But he lied that he had a life threatening medical problem and had to leave for Germany to be treated.  He lied because the fallout from his unconstitutional actions was huge.

But Jalal's in Germany now, has been for about 16 months now.  And he really has had a life threatening problem.  So maybe he shouldn't have lied in May of 2012 because the universe made his lying true.


Pollack, if he got honest, probably could do a good analysis.  The crap he offered last week wasn't a good analysis. It included this garbage:


In addition, Muqtada al-Sadr’s bizarre and unexpected decision to disband his political party and withdraw from politics has further benefitted Maliki.  Many former Sadrists are expected to sign on to Maliki’s SoL coalition. 

Is Pollack that stupid or he is that much of a whore?

I have no idea but I read those lies and just want to scream.  We already covered this b.s. spin that Moqtada's followers were going to flock to Nouri.  It's xenophobic and pretends that Shi'ites will support any Shi'ite.  From the February 18th snapshot and we're using "--------" to note the beginning and the ending of the excerpt:

----------------------------------------------------
Moqtada al-Sadr was strong armed into supporting Nouri -- strong armed by the Iranian government.  His followers never supported Nouri.

More than that, they clearly rejected him.

Does no one remember what happened in 2010?

For one thing, immediately after the elections Moqtada threw it to his supporters 'who he should back?'

Have we all forgotten that?

From the April 7, 2010 snapshot:


That interview took place Monday and while there is no coalition-sharing government/arrangement as yet from the March 7th elections, Friday and Saturday, another round of elections were held -- this to determine whom the Sadr bloc should back. Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc won 40 seats in the Parliament. Kadhim Ajrash and Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg News) report that Ibrahim al-Jaafari "won 24 percent of the 428,000 ballots cast in the internal referendum, ahead of al-Sadr's second cousin, Jafar Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who obtained 23 percent, Sadrist spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi said today in the southern city of Najaf." Al Jazeera notes that Nouri al-Maliki received 10% of the vote and Ayad Allawi 9%. The US military invaded Iraq in March 2003 (and still hasn't left). Following the invasion, Ayad Allawi became Iraq's first prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari became the second and Nouri al-Maliki became the third. It's a little more complicated.
Nouri wasn't wanted, Nouri wasn't chosen. Following the December 2005 elections, coalition building took place and the choice for prime minister was al-Jaafari. But the US government refused to allow him to continue as prime minister. The Bush administration was adamant that he would not continue and faulted him for, among other things, delays in the privatization of Iraq's oil. Though the US had no Parliamentary vote, they got their way and Nouri became the prime minister. al-Jaafari had won the vote with the backing of al-Sadr's bloc, just as he won the vote that took place this weekend. The vote can be seen as (a) a show of support for al-Jaafari whom Sadarists have long supported and (b) a message to the US government. 




Stop lying that Nouri benefits from Moqtada dropping out.  He doesn't.


The Sadr bloc can't stand Nouri -- that's been obvious in Parliament for the last four years.

Moqtada's supporters can't stand Nouri either.  They remember his attacks on them in 2008 in Basra and Sadr City.  Moqtada is seen as supporting the poor, Nouri's done nothing for the poor.   BRussells Tribune carries an Al-Monitor article from last week by Amal Sakr which opens:


The head of the Model Iraqi Women Organization, Athraa Hassani, provided Al-Monitor with this information, quoting World Bank officials who discussed these statistics during a meeting in Turkey with a number of members of civil society organizations seeking to find a solution to the poverty crisis in Iraq.
Hassani questions the accuracy of the poverty rates announced by the Iraqi government, affirming that these rates are continuously increasing because of a rise in daily violence and spike in unemployment rates in addition to a weakening of the Iraqi economy.

Based on the World Bank’s figures, this would mean that out of Iraq’s 34.7 million citizens, more than 9.5 million individuals are living below the poverty line.



Nothing has happened since 2010 to increase Nouri's standing among Sadr supporters.  In fact, since 2010, the efforts Moqtada and Ayad Allawi have worked on have probably resulted in greater support for Allawi which has let Nouri fall even lower.  Probably.

But what is known is that Sadr supporters did not support Nouri in 2010.  They didn't support when the March 2010 voting took place and they did not support a month later in the poll Moqtada carried out.


------------------------------------------------------

There is nothing to indicate that Moqtada's followers would support Nouri -- there is ample evidence to demonstrate that they won't.

Equally true, Moqtada's not retired.  We pointed that out weeks ago when he returned to Iraq.  Prior to his return, we pointed out that his 'retirement' didn't really mean anything.  It didn't mean he couldn't be prime minister, it didn't mean anything.  And that was before he came back to Iraq.  And repeatedly denounced Nouri (which, again, means his followers will not be supporting Nouri).

Joel Wing (Musings On Iraq) offers an analysis which includes:

In March and April the Sadr movement continued to criticize Prime Minister Maliki. From March 10 to 12 Sadrists held rallies in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Basra, Kirkuk, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Babil, Wasit, and Diyala against the premier for his remarks belittling Moqtada al-Sadr. There were also reports of attacks upon Dawa offices, which were played down by both parties so that the election didn’t get sidetracked by violence. March 23, Sadr’s Ahrar List said it opposed Maliki serving a third term, stating that other parties and the Iraqi people wanted change. It went on to say that Maliki had failed to secure the country or to provide political stability. Continuing with that line on April 3 Sadr gave a speech calling Maliki a dictator who was leading the country towards one party rule by banning his opponents. Sadr was joined by parliamentarian Jawad Shahlya from Ahrar and independent lawmaker Saban al-Saadi, both of which had been barred from running in this year’s vote. Sadr went on to accuse the prime minister of attempting to marginalize Sunnis by launching military operations in Anbar. Sadr finished by calling on Maliki to step aside so someone else could try running the country. Finally, on April 5 Shahlya claimed Maliki was attempting to pass a law that would give him broad powers that would lead to the declaration of a state of emergency and the dissolution of the parliament.





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