First, I'm quoting from Kevin Zeese's e-mail: "Voters for Peace (http://www.votersforpeace.us/) did a little update yesterday on militarist money in politics (since Obama reversed course on campaign finance)."
I wouldn't mind quoting the rest but I think it was a private e-mail. But there's a link to Kevin's organization and they did an article on militarist money.
I'm going to get back to politics and Iraq (hopefully) but let me back this up for Zeese and anyone who is new to this site.
When The Common Ills started, I found it via C.I.'s use of lyrics. I thought, "Whoever this is, great taste in music!"
We exchanged multiple e-mails. About Iraq and about music. C.I. was urging me to share my thoughts about music. My attitude was, "I did that in college and right after." (And got to cover the Stones on tour once. My highwater mark.) But I started seeing what other members were highlighting (and saying when there were comments) and thought, "Okay, maybe I should weigh in." So December 19th, the first album review I'd done in years went up "Kat's Korner Green Day v. the Disney Kids." If you've ever written music reviews for any publication, you know the hassles. You know that someone wants to edit your opinion. That was one of my fears, to be honest. C.I. said the only rule was "worksafe" because that's what the site was. So I'd have to keep it clean or use dashes or stars for curse words. (Although C.I. broke the rule when I reviewed Nina Simone and said, "Kat's it's the title of the song, it's a classic. It has to go in without dashes or stars.") I felt I'd do one review a month. But we'd met by then (when C.I. found out I lived in the Bay Area, C.I. wrote back, "How do I not already know you?") and I knew C.I. was going to DC to protest Bully Boy's coronation so I did some music pieces during that to fill in (and C.I. did 'live' pieces each morning and had canned pieces written ahead of time for the evenings). But after that, it was just the album reviews and the year-end pieces.
That's all I signed up for and if I don't get a review before the end of the month, I'm not keeping my end of the bargain with the community.
At some point, community members were starting sites. I thought I could do something to help out. So I started this and I did two or three nights a week. Cedric used to do Tuesday and Thursday post. We used to joke that we were the supporting characters on a soap opera -- because they usually get their big scenes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then the snapshot started. The community wanted that and I knew how much work went into those. So I started blogging each day there was a snapshot and have maintained that. (I also had Ruth, C.I., Mike, Betty and Cedric -- possibly Wally -- filling in for me when I was in Ireland in 2006. Thank you again.)
But I'm not a heavy lifting site. My attitude has always been "It is what it is."
I'm not as vocal as Rebecca but she and I are probably most similar in our blogs in that regard. We're not afraid to say, "Okay, that pisses me off!" Rebecca does way more work than I do at her site. (And she was the first site to start after The Common Ills so she knows what she's doing. High schoolers love Rebecca. And that's not an insult but middle and high school students have always been attracted to her site.) I don't bust my ass. I may write about music. I may write about something in the news.
I may write about something I saw on the road. I may write about my neighbors.
At The Third Estate Sunday Reivew . . . I've been helping out there forever. Before I had my own site. And the editions take forever. That's always been the way. But at one point to try to get a quick feature, Dona proposed the text equivalent of an hour long news cast "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review." It was thought that it could be done in 15 minutes plus one hour. That is very quick for a piece at Third. So Dona and Jim were the 'producers' and they would divide up topics or ask if you had a topic. Then you'd be online trying to find whatever you could. Jess did the peace beat and he always had his done fairly quickly, so he'd go first. While he was going, everyone was still working and the next up would go up, etc. And that all took -- with Dona timing it -- one hour. C.I. was anchor (and didn't want to be) because we needed someone well versed in a variety of topics who could ask questions and stretch when the next person wasn't ready. Betty generally grabed politics and entertainment (the intersection) and I always grabbed music. I went last. I was happy to go last. If Dona told me before it was my turn that I had five minutes, fine. If she told me time had run out and there was only time for a minute, fine. (And they would help you cut down your report before you gave it -- Jim and Dona would.)
If you look at the roundtables we do there today, I don't generally speak that much. If I speak, I'm speaking about something that's really ticked me off more often than not. In a non-transcript piece, I pitch in more than I do in roundtables. But I'm not really interested in my opinion. I know it. I'm more interested in what others are saying.
So, point, I do this blog and am always shocked when e-mails from community members come in. I don't do anything wonderful or great here. If I've strung together a few paragraphs that's allowed me to include the day's snapshot, I'm thrilled. That's a success for me. I've added something (maybe minor) and amplified the snapshot's reach so helped keep the focus on Iraq.
So if you're coming here expecting deep thoughts and never finding them, it's not you. That's not what this site is.
I hope that clears it up.
Were it up to me, I'd be writing about music every day. But sometimes I'll encounter someone on the road or something that interests me that day.
And I'm always going in the e-mails (as Kevin Zeese should know) trying to find a topic as I rush to pull something together.
An e-mail from Joan (community member who LOVES music) asked what we'd taken on the road this week. Mary J. is a favorite of C.I.'s so we always have Mary. We may have all of her discs this week. We also have Tori Amos' Scarlet's Walk, Agustana's new CD (which I will be reviewing by the July 4th weekend if not before), the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and Carly's Hello Big Man.
Kevin Zeese, if you send a link to the article, I'll provide it here. I can't promise I'll read it right away. And that can apply to any articles you want links given to. But please know that a TON of e-mails come in every day. Eli, Martha, Shirley, Heather, Dona, Jim, Jess, Ava and C.I. work the public account. If e-mails to the private accounts (members only) back up, C.I. will ask everyone to focus on the members only. So it may be a day or two before I see it. Also true is Vets for 'Freedom' are attacking Matthis Chiroux in e-mail after e-mail. C.I. outed one of them this morning (see the sidebar on The Common Ills, you're not protected if you tick C.I. off or threaten -- or both). (And I have no policy like C.I.'s.) It's a rare day where there are not multiple e-mails from Centcom trying to argue something C.I. wrote or trying to get ahead of a story that is breaking.
There are people wanting highlights. One came up in this afternoon and C.I. said, "Too late." And it was, C.I. was dictating the snapshot and did not have time to figure out how to promote a weekend program. People write in wanting their books plugged, or their appearances on a book tour or speaking tour, or their films. It's not just a few e-mails every day. When Barbara Boxer stood up for voting rights in January of 2005, the e-mails coming in surpassed 500 in one day. That seemed HUGE. These days, forget it. The public account right now 24,369 new e-mails and 610 in the spam folder. That's after it's been worked all day. It is never at zero. Some of that will be junk mail. Some in the spam folder will be real e-mail. It never ends.
How it works for Ruth and myself is that we have folders with our names and our e-mails go into our folders. If you include our names in the title, they go in without anyone else reading it. C.I. has a folder as well. "MUST READ" is the title. Anyone other than C.I. working the e-mails that finds something they feel C.I. has to see (Martha and Shirley give a daily summary of the e-mails they read, Eli and Heather pass on anything they think is important -- if Jim, Ava, Jess or Dona read it and think that ends it, they delete it) puts it in "MUST READ." People never grasp how much time C.I. has to spend on the e-mails. If that weren't the case, it would be much easier. And I'm just talking about the public account. I'm not talking about the two accounts members are supposed to write to. (Supposed to. And that's why C.I. repeatedly will request members use the private addresses. You'll be read quicker.)
I used to post my e-mail (hotmail) and I stopped doing that after a man tried to intimidate me into posting something he wrote but to post it as my own. That was insulting and the entire exchange over that was insulting. He went on to alter my words (posted here) at his own site (online magazine). I didn't write him screaming, "How dare you!" I figure if someone has such little ethics that they'll alter your words (while putting it in quotes), I don't really need to waste my time on him. After that, I just wanted a barrier between myself and people like that. So the public account is how non-members can contact me. (And if you're a community member, you know that I have shortened that story.)
So for me, I put about enough time to type whatever makes it up here and time to dig through my e-mails. I rarely reply to even community members. I don't have the time. I'm not C.I. who will spend hours replying to members. I need my sleep. C.I. can and often does make it a full week on three hours of sleep a night. And then will be up all night Saturday working on Third only to then have to do The Common Ills on Sundays. It never ends for C.I. My focus is on speaking out against the war offline and here I'm just tossing out whatever I toss out.
Hope that clears it up. Watch this:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
and Wally of The Daily Jot
I mentioned the above in this post. I do that all the time to save time, just copy and paste from Third. I didn't mention Betty but C.I. and I are about to be on the phone with her. She usually tries out her chapters on us but I think she's thinking of doing another post out of character. If so, she plans to return to Betinna's story but she was talking earlier this week about how an update was needed to last week. (Betinna is the story of globalization, which is how she ended up with Thomas Friedman.)
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, June 20, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces another death, today is World Refugee Day, and more.
Starting with war resistance. Matthew Chiroux was the subject of a broadcast CBS 23 News (WIFR, link has text and video) last night:
Mike Garrigan: 24-year-old Matthis Chiroux says he will not deploy to Iraq. The young soldier was asked to report to duty June 15th but he refuses, calling the war in Iraq and illegal war. Chiroux has been in the US army for five years and has completed a tour of Afghanistan; however, he says he has no intentions of returning.
Matthis Chiroux: My decision was entirely based on my desire to no longer continue to violate my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation.
NBC's WAFF 48 also reported on Matthis last night (link has text and video):
Kimberly Essex: An army Sergeant is refusing to deploy from Iraq and his family is dealing with his decision to do so. WAFF 48 reporter Eric Sollman joins us now and, Eric, you spoke with the soldier's father.
Eric Sollman: Yes, Kim, and being a military man himself, Robert Chiroux, he has mixed -- mixed reactions to the whole ordeal. His son Matthis, a military photo journalist, is one of thousands of military ready reserve troops recalled to combat and now, according to army officials, he's one of about 700 called from this group that have failed to report in the last seven years. Last time Matthis Chiroux made local news was when [clip from December 2004 shown] was four years ago. The story involved his girlfriend at the time and a car break-in. Now this US army Sergeant is making national headlines for refusing to redeploy to Iraq. He's not hiding his protest and his family isn't dodging questions either.
Robert Chiroux: My son made the decision not to report. He feels that the war in Iraq is unconstitutional and unjust.
Eric Sollman: His father Robert is a navy veteran who lives in Huntsville [Alabama]. He said his son was to report to Fort Jackson Sunday for reactivation from the Individual Ready Reserve. Matthis refused.
Robert Chiroux: My son has certainly indicated that if he had been called back from the Inactive Ready Reserve to active duty to serve in Afghanistan, he would not have hesitated to go. So I know that my son -- inspite of things that I have heard said of him -- he's certainly not a coward. He just has decided that he feels this war is illegal and he's taking a stand.
Eric Sollman: While Robert doesn't necessarily agree with his son's stand, he stands by him.
Robert Chiroux: My son asked me to come to Washington [DC] to be with him on Father's Day. I had some reservations about standing behind my son while he made his statement but he's my son and, of course, I love him and I'm going to stand with him.
Eric Sollman: And Robert says he would gladly take his son's place and serve if he could and, Kim, of course there were a lot of issues that we talked about that we couldn't fit into the story so we put his interview in its entirity on our website at waff.com.
Kimberly Essex: Well your heart just goes out to this father because he really is in a tough position. He wants to support his son but it doesn't coincide with maybe what he really believes.
Eric Sollman: And he says it's something that only a parent could understand.
WAYYTV's Brett Haas notes, "The 24-year-old is in Washington lining up support from like-minded members of Congress." AFP explains, "Chiroux served five years in the army, with tours in Afghanistan, Japan, Germany and the Philippines."
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
Today is World Refugee Day. The United Nations' IRIN notes that "Iraqi experts have been urging the government and international community to do more to help the large number of Iraqi refugees in the Middle East" and quote Iraqi Parliamentarian Abdul-Khaliq Zankana stating, "Day after day Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries are getting more frustrated by the harsh conditions in which they live. Sooner or later they are going to have a negative impact on the stability of the whole region." Amnesty International has released Iraq: Rhetoric and Reality: The Iraqi Refugee Crisis (here for HTML and here for PDF) this week. Picking up with obligations: "Under international law a duty exists to not send or force a person to return to a situation where they would be at risk of serious human rights abuses. This principle attaches to all states as a principle of customary international law, as well as to state parties to the ICCPR, Convention against Torture and Refugee Convention and Protocol." But as the report points out the resposibility isn't just to host countries, the international community has an obligation to provide assistance as well.
The report repeatedly stresses that refugees cannot be returned to Iraq because the country is not stable. On Northern Iraq, they note: "There have been acts of political violence between Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds and against members of the Yazidi religious minority in several areas along the border between Kurdistan and Nineweh (Mosul) governorate. Tension and insecurity also increased when attacks by a Turkey-based armed group, the Kurdistand Workers Party (PKK), against Turkish troops stationed near the border with Iraq were followed in October 2007 by Turkish military operations against PKK bases in northern Iraq." When even the highly touted 'safe' region of Iraq is not safe, there's no 'safe' area. Despite that reality, many countries are attempting to send Iraqi refugees back to Iraq.
Norway was attempting to do that but, the report notes, it appears to have stopped. Other countries continue attempting deportation. Among the offenders are Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece and the Netherlands.
"Instead of avoiding the reality," the report notes, "the international community should be confronting a medium- to long-term displacement crisis, in view of the likelihood that Iraqi refugees will need sancturay for years to come. Recognition of the on-going nature of the crisis must be grasped now if the suffering of the millions of displaced Iraqis is to be ameliorated. Host nations need to be provided with on-going assistance and support from the international community through increased and sustained funding."
US senators Hillary Clinton and Ben Cardin and House Representatives Alcee Hastings and John Dingell sent a letter to the White House today on the refugee issue (Barack Obama refused to sign on). Here's the letter sent to the White House:
As you know, the Iraq War and subsequent ethnic and sectarian conflict has caused the displacement of millions of Iraqis. While we have great concerns about the United States response to this humanitarian crisis, we write to you about a specific population of especially vulnerable Iraqis: those who have worked for our government and American organizations in Iraq and whose lives have been placed in grave danger because of that service. Recent statistics and reports have indicated that the current system of identifying and resettling our Iraqi allies has structural complications and procedural inefficiencies. Since March 2003, the United States has admitted fewer than 8,000 Iraqi refugees in total. Your Administration's goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees during this fiscal year seems an unlikely goal, given that less than 6,000 have been resettled to date. At a recent Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) briefing, one panelist, an attorney providing pro bono legal services to help resettle Iraqi refugees noted, "unresponsiveness and protracted delays in interviews and processing have themselves contributed to…individual emergencies…The cost in human lives and suffering due to institutional breakdowns in such aberrational instances speaks to the pressing need to ensure that our system is better equipped to respond to these challenges." The role our own government has played in prolonging the suffering of our courageous Iraqi allies who risked their lives to assist our country is troubling and simply unacceptable. To better understand why the Administration continues to delay processing our Iraqi allies for resettlement, we respectfully request that you provide us with the necessary information in response to the following: • While we are pleased that the United States has opened a processing center in Baghdad to assist Iraqis at risk in applying for resettlement to the United States, we remain concerned by reports that the office lacks the necessary personnel and resources at this time to quickly and efficiently process those Iraqis who are in imminent danger. It is most troubling that only Iraqis with sufficient connections to enter the Green Zone are able to receive help. What is the Administration's immediate and long-term strategy to improve and increase the efficiency of the current processing system? • At the Baghdad center, in particular, significant problems inhibit expeditious and efficient processing of our Iraqi allies. For example, logistical and security issues prevent access to the Green Zone for many applicants and contribute to complications with assisting applicants with medical conditions. In light of the inherent difficulties of in-country processing, what is the current status of a proposal by State Department officials to allow the Department of Defense to airlift Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants for expedited processing to a central processing center at the United States Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait? As you know, this past April, England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered an airlift of British-affiliated Iraqis to a military airfield in Oxfordshire, England in order to expeditiously and safely process them there. Denmark also evacuated and resettled 370 Iraqi interpreters and other Iraqis who worked for Danish troops prior to the Danish contingent's departure from Iraq last year. We strongly urge your consideration of a proposal similar to those that are now being successfully implemented by our Coalition partners. • The appointment of Ambassador James Foley at the State Department and Lori Scialabba at the Department of Homeland Security as senior coordinators within those agencies with respect to Iraqi refugee issues was an important and useful step. However, it appears as if there are still problems with respect to interagency cooperation. One particular problem that has been identified is that FBI background checks, even for those Iraqis who have been working directly with the United States military in Iraq, are subject to inordinately lengthy delays. To address this ongoing issue, we strongly urge you to appoint a Senior Coordinator for Iraqi Refugee Issues in the White House. • When will the Department of Homeland Security issue its policy directive to implement the provisions of Sections 1241-1249 of Public Law 110-181, the "Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act," for which it is responsible? • What is your Administration's policy regarding medical parole for those Iraqis whose cases are of high priority due to serious medical conditions? Our government has a moral responsibility to provide aid and protection to those courageous Iraqi allies who have risked their lives and the lives of their families to assist American efforts to build a democratic and stable Iraq. We are deeply concerned that, to date, you have not acknowledged their sacrifice or effectively marshaled the assets of our government to help them. We urge you to speak out about the service of our brave Iraqi allies and direct the appropriate agencies in your Administration to take immediate steps to provide them with the attention and resources they desperately need and deserve. Each day, more Iraqi allies face increased danger or even murder for their service to the United States. To ensure that more do not suffer because they chose to help us, a prompt response to these concerns is appreciated and we believe appropriate. Sincerely,
Alcee L. Hastings, M.C.
Benjamin L. Cardin, U.S.S.
John D. Dingell, M.C.
Russell D. Feingold, U.S.S.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S.S.
Robert P. Casey, Jr., U.S.S.
John W. Olver, M.C.
Janice D. Schakowsky, M.C.
G.K. Butterfield, M.C.
James P. McGovern, M.C.
Timothy H. Bishop, M.C.
Joseph Crowley, M.C.
Diane E. Watson, M.C.
Earl Blumenauer, M.C.
Peter Welch, M.C.
Hilda L. Solis, M.C.
Ike Skelton, M.C.
Repeating, Barack elected not to sign. Consider it another skipped vote -- or, dropping back to the Illinois state legislature, a "present" one. William C. Mann (AP) observes, "A half-million Iraqis fled their embattled country in 2007, the third consecutive year more Iraqis were displaced than any other nationality, a survey of the world's refugees reported Thursday." The organization is US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and they also rank the ten worst countries. For Iraq, they note: "Shia militias in Iraq have particularly singled out Palestinians for retribution since the fall of the Hussein regime in 2003. From 2004 to 2007 more than 85,000 Palestinians fled targeted violence, leaving only 15,000 in Iraq. Gunmen in Ministry of the Interior uniforms have killed Palestinians, firing on UN buildings in the process. Insurgents have tortured Palestinians to death and fired mortars into Palestinian neighborhoods." IRIN notes the UNHCR's findings that 50% of the 50,000 Iraqi refugees in Lebanon are children. Citing the International Organization for Migration, Kim Gamel (AP) explains, "But women and children who have been forced to flee their homes are particularly vulnerable because the men in the family have often been killed or abandoned them in a conservative Islamic society that generally doesn't value women in the workplace." Adnkronos International notes the Spanish Commission of Refugee AID (CEAR) which found that "All 1600 refugees who sought asylum in Spain in 2007 were rejected by the government."
On refugees, the Times of London's Deborah Haynes won an award from Amnesty Interntaional for her coverage of Iraqi collaborators who face obstacles to safe harbor from the United Kingdom. Haynes wrote multiple articles on the topic. As noted before, we're not concerned with the plight of the collaborators. They have their champions -- such as Haynes.
Meanwhile, the invasion of Amara continues with Iraqi troops and US troops taking part in the 'crackdown.' Hannah Allam and Ali al Basri (McClatchy Newspapers) quote Faiq Hanoun declaring yesterday, "The city is quiet even though the operation has started, and I haven't heard a gun-shot or the sound of a plane. Life is going on in the normal fashion. Markets are open and movement in and out of the city hasn't stopped." Ernesto London and Aahad Ali (Washington Post) note the arrest of the vice governor which "angered followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr . . . Sadrist leaders in Maysan have vowed to cooperate with Iraqi troops but have suggested that the government is trying to expand its presence in Sadr strongholds to weaken the movement politically before provincial elections scheduled for the fall." Alissa J. Rubin and Suadad Salhy (New York Times) discover, "There were reports of rough treatment and especially of arrests of eminent followers of Mr. Sadr. It was unclear whether the units making the arrests had warrants, as required under Iraqi law. If so, Mr. Sadr's followers said they would not protest the detentions. However, Mr. Sadr's supporters protested at least two cases in which Iraqi troops seized family members of wanted figures when they could not find the person they were seeking. Iraqi military leaders responded that they had arrested only one relative of a wanted man. The American military has used similar tactics, drawing criticism from Iraqis in and out of the government." ANTARA NEWS and AFP explain that today saw the arrests of five more aides to al-Sadr. Aref Mohammed (Reuters) quotes Adnan al-Selawi ("head of the Sadr movement's office in Amara) stating that "we found many breaches and violations" in the 'security sweep.'
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 3 lives and left seven people wounded, a Nineveh roadside bombing left eleven Iraqi soldiers wounded, a Mosul car bombing left six police officers wounded and, dropping back to yesterday, Diyala Province home bombings left one person wounded.
Corpses?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 corpse was discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Iskandariya.
Meanwhile, in the US, Robert O'Harrow Jr. (Washington Post) reveals that the Democrats have set up a panel to investigate the contracts 'awarded' throughout the illegal war. The press release at US Senator Jim Webb's online office notes, "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have named a co-chair and three additional commissioners to the Commission on Wartime Contracting. Established as the result of legislation introduced by Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) last spring and signed into law January 28, 2008, the Commission is charged with addressing the systemic problems associated with the federal government's wartime-support, reconstruction, and private security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Today the US military announced: "One Soldier was killed and five wounded in three roadside bomb attacks on Coalition force patrols in Diyala province June 20. All casualties were evacuated to a Coalition hospital."
Turning to US politics, Barack Obama's decision to opt out of public financing [see Wally's "THIS JUST IN! DNC OR GOP? WHO CAN TELL?," Cedric's "Extreme DNC Makeover!," Mike's "LAT and Barack -- liars liars pants on fire," Ruth's "Barack sells out, Matthis stands firm," Kat's "Glen Ford, Kevin Zeese" and Rebecca's "the liar barack" and yesterday's snapshot] leads the New York Times to editorialize "Public Funding on the Ropes" and Team Nader notes:
Ralph Nader stands for shifting the power from the big corporations back to the people.
Period.
Full stop.
End of story.
Contrast that with Senator Obama.
The old Obama said that he thought NAFTA was a "big mistake."
The new Obama isn't so sure.
The old Obama said he would abide by public spending limits in this election.
The new Obama he says he won't.
The old Obama said he was for a change in foreign policy and surrounded himself with innovative thinkers with a chance to make a difference.
The new Obama has surrounded himself with veterans of the military industrial complex status quo.
The old Obama talked economic populism.
The new Obama talks corporate-speak and surrounds himself with economists from the Chicago School.
You know where Nader and Gonzalez stand on corporate power.
And that isn't changing.
We're at six percent nationwide in the most recent CNN poll.
We're going to be on ten state ballots by the end of June.
And we're shooting for 40 by the end of the summer.
Together, we are moving forward.
And together, we will make a difference in November.
Onward.
Non-Iraq related, independent journalist David Bacon continues to explore the issue of immigration. And his latest is "HOW DO YOU SAY JUSTICE IN MIXTECO?" (TruthOut). NOW on PBS (airs tonight in most markets) asks: "Will a booming worldwide middle class drive up consumer costs?" PBS' Washington Week will include AP's Charles Babington, Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus and CNBC and the New York Times' John Harwood.
and already
iraqmatthis chiroux
mcclatchy newspapershannah allemali al basrithe washington posternesto londonoaahad alidavid baconalissa j. rubinthe new york times
washington weekpbscharles babingtondoyle mcmanusnow on pbs
