A TV crew from Kazakhstan’s Channel 31 was in Columbus on Nov. 6 and 7 to make a real documentary on the U.S. political system, but the crew got a wary reception from press secretaries who feared public skewering by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, star of the mockumentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
It didn’t help that the Kazakh cameraman’s first name was “Bolat,” a name similar to Cohen’s alias. In Cohen’s movie, his character Borat goads subjects into making outrageous racist and sexist statements for a fake documentary about the United States.
Just had to share that frivolous bit of news today…
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki faced a widening revolt within his divided government as two senior Sunni politicians joined prominent Shiite lawmakers and Cabinet members in criticizing his policies.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi said he wanted to see al-Maliki’s government gone and another “understanding” for a new coalition put in place with guarantees that ensure collective decision making.
“There is a clear deterioration in security and everything is moving in the wrong direction,” the Sunni leader told The Associated Press. “This situation must be redressed as soon as possible. If they continue, the country will plunge into civil war.”
But I loved this line from the article:
On Thursday, Bush said he would speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces and assured al-Maliki that Washington was not looking for a “graceful exit” from a war well into its fourth year.
“So, we’ll be in Iraq until the job is complete,” Bush said.
That’s the problem, George. You’ve completely destroyed any stability in that region for generations to come. Time to call the job done and bring everyone home. But you’re so divorced from reality, you won’t. You’ll just keep singing the praises of your puppet, while another 52 piled up in Baghdad yesterday.
-“Bush is trying to set al-Maliki up for a confrontation with the Sadr Movement and is trying to keep the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad from too openly embracing Iran. (That cow is already out of the barn, of course).”
[It says that] informed sources in Amman report that the Arab diplomats warned Bush against giving Iran nuclear privileges and against giving Syria “Lebanese” privileges, in return for their help in Iraq. These Arab countries likely include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt. That is, there is a new Middle Eastern Cold War between the pro-Western Arab states (Riyadh-Amman-Cairo-Kuwait City) and the Tehran-Damascus axis. The pro-Western Arabs fear the Iranian nuclear program, and they generally support Saad Hariri, Fouad Seniora, and the 14 March Movement in Lebanon against Hizbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
This Middle Eastern Cold War is pushing Washington, allied with the Arab conservatives, into a contradictory stance in Iraq, having installed a Shiite, pro-Iranian government there but remaining unable to work with this new reality on a geopolitical level. The Middle Eastern Cold War pitting the Saudis and Egyptians against the Iranians and Syrians is reinforced by Washington’s other major ally in the region, Israel,
[.]
U.S. Court Bans Oil and Gas Roads on Roadless National Forests
SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 30, 2006 (ENS) – A federal district judge ruled yesterday that the Roadless Area Conservation Rule should be applied to prohibit road construction on hundreds of oil and gas leases issued on national forest roadless areas since the rule was first enacted in 2001.
Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California issued the order, which bans road construction on 327 oil and gas leases issued by the Bush administration since January 2001, most in Colorado, Utah and North Dakota.
In September, the same judge overturned the Bush administration’s repeal of the Clinton-era Roadless Rule, deciding that federal laws had been violated.
Conservation groups, represented by a team of Earthjustice attorneys, brought the legal challenge to the Bush administration policies, joining parallel efforts by four states which brought a separate but similar challenge.
“This ruling is a victory for hunters, anglers, hikers, backpackers and everyone who wants to see their National Forests wild and pristine, instead of industrialized for oil and gas development,” said Earthjustice lawyer Tim Preso.
“Many of these leases had been heavily opposed by local citizens, but the Bush administration turned a deaf ear to their concerns,” he said.
Analysis by NASA of the Tagish Lake meteorite, collected immediately after its fall over Canada in 2000, reveal that it contains billions of tiny globules, which could have served as protected nooks in which early life may have originated. The meteorite, which formed at a frigid -260C and is thought to possibly be older than the solar system, would have been typical of the meteorites raining onto our planet in its earliest era. An analysis of 26 of the globules indicated that while they appeared empty, they came to earth pre-coated with organic molecules.
A Roman sarcophagus discovered near Trafalgar Square could lead to the map of Roman London being redrawn. The find, which dates from around the year 410, lies outside what were the city walls of Roman London, near St-Martin-in-the-Fields Church. While the earliest known church at St Martin’s only dates from 1222, the area may have been a sacred site, possibly a Christian site, going right back into the late Roman period… …Meanwhile, an ancient curse aimed at a thief is one of a number of treasures to be unveiled to the public for the first time, following the largest archaeological excavation ever undertaken in the British town of Leicester. Curse tablets are known from a number of Roman temple sites in Britain, and are thin rectangular sheets of lead bearing the ‘curse’ inscribed with a point or stylus. They were usually rolled up and were probably nailed to the wall of a temple or shrine. Most curses seem to relate to thefts and typically the chosen god is asked to do harm to the perpetrator. It has been suggested, on the basis of name forms and the value of items stolen, that the curses relate to the lives of ordinary people, rather than the wealthy, and that they were perhaps commissioned by the dedicator from a professional curse writer.
Here are three ideas an America that wanted to show leadership on environmental issues could adopt (Democratic congressmembers, are you listening?):
The European Union is a step closer to agreeing to an ambitious new set of rules regulating the use of chemicals in order to better protect people and the environment, officials announced on Friday. Under the new rules, it will no longer be up to public authorities to show the toxicity of chemicals. Instead, it will be the responsibility of industrial producers to demonstrate that their products are safe. The plan sets up a system for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (REACH) under which companies have to register all chemicals used and provide information about them, including potential hazards. It is estimated that 30,000 chemicals are in routine use by industry. Tests provided by chemicals producers will be controlled and monitored by a new agency to be set up in Helsinki, which will be empowered to authorize and register substances.
The European Commission plans to propose new mandatory targets for EU nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to battle climate change, its president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said on Thursday. European Union member states already face targets up to 2012 to cut emissions under the international Kyoto Protocol on global warming, while its industry faces caps on carbon dioxide (CO2) under the bloc’s carbon trading scheme. The EU executive body is planning to outline targets for the period after 2012 — when the first Kyoto period expires — in a policy paper in January as part of a package of energy proposals for the 25-nation bloc. EU leaders have previously backed goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15-30 percent by 2020. But those are indicative targets and not binding.
(CentCom weekly newsletter) Dec. 4, 2006 – … have led some people to conclude that our mission may be hopeless.
However, my recent visit to Fallujah has reaffirmed my strong conviction that as bad as the situation may sometimes appear, there is still reason to be optimistic for Iraq’s future.
Although it has been out of the headlines for some time, take a minute to recall why the name Fallujah resonates so strongly in our collective memory. Perhaps the most disturbing images of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) emanated from Fallujah on March 31, 2004, as the bodies of four murdered American contractors were desecrated and the charred corpses hung off the Euphrates River Bridge for the world to see. The “Fallujah Brigade,” a unit comprised of former Iraqi army officers, failed to prevent warlords allied with Al Qaeda in Iraq from effectively taking over the city.
BS propaganda: “… failed to prevent warlords allied with Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Al Qaeda was not present in Iraq at the time of the invasion! The most disturbing images of OIF are the daily deaths 100+ civilians in Baghdad due to failed security of the occupying forces and, ofcourse the images of the Abu Ghraib torture chambers. Total civilian deaths since US led invasion now 150,000+.
making an Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda was a good idea. And then we began to prove that it was a good idea and gave a brand new bunch of Iraqis a good reason to join the new Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda. I’m forever sick of bullshit I swear!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stephen Cambone, the U.S. Defense Department’s top intelligence official and a close aide to outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, will resign on December 31, the Pentagon said on Friday.
suffering from Borat fallout: Plain Dealer
Just had to share that frivolous bit of news today…
As long as his name wasn’t boran.
the puppet Maliki: AP/Yahoo
But I loved this line from the article:
That’s the problem, George. You’ve completely destroyed any stability in that region for generations to come. Time to call the job done and bring everyone home. But you’re so divorced from reality, you won’t. You’ll just keep singing the praises of your puppet, while another 52 piled up in Baghdad yesterday.
didn’t george declare the mission accomplished back in May 2003?
How could he have forgotten the job is all finished? Poor guy already took his bows.
This is too sad.
Maybe he just needs a vacation. Being Preznit is hard wurk, you know…
How about exile to Baghdad?
He could sit on a throne and give orders, install a hotline to Dick.
Only if they make a reality tv show out of it and send Laura and the twins along too…
Well, the mission was accomplished, as far as it went: invade, oust government, occupy.
The job that remains incomplete? Profit.
Professor Juan Cole sums up the last 72 hours and sees the birth of the New Middle East Cold War
-“Bush is trying to set al-Maliki up for a confrontation with the Sadr Movement and is trying to keep the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad from too openly embracing Iran. (That cow is already out of the barn, of course).”
Smackdown.
ENS Link
Nothing like a good Bush smackdown first thing on Friday morning, is there?
Analysis by NASA of the Tagish Lake meteorite, collected immediately after its fall over Canada in 2000, reveal that it contains billions of tiny globules, which could have served as protected nooks in which early life may have originated. The meteorite, which formed at a frigid -260C and is thought to possibly be older than the solar system, would have been typical of the meteorites raining onto our planet in its earliest era. An analysis of 26 of the globules indicated that while they appeared empty, they came to earth pre-coated with organic molecules.
A Roman sarcophagus discovered near Trafalgar Square could lead to the map of Roman London being redrawn. The find, which dates from around the year 410, lies outside what were the city walls of Roman London, near St-Martin-in-the-Fields Church. While the earliest known church at St Martin’s only dates from 1222, the area may have been a sacred site, possibly a Christian site, going right back into the late Roman period… …Meanwhile, an ancient curse aimed at a thief is one of a number of treasures to be unveiled to the public for the first time, following the largest archaeological excavation ever undertaken in the British town of Leicester. Curse tablets are known from a number of Roman temple sites in Britain, and are thin rectangular sheets of lead bearing the ‘curse’ inscribed with a point or stylus. They were usually rolled up and were probably nailed to the wall of a temple or shrine. Most curses seem to relate to thefts and typically the chosen god is asked to do harm to the perpetrator. It has been suggested, on the basis of name forms and the value of items stolen, that the curses relate to the lives of ordinary people, rather than the wealthy, and that they were perhaps commissioned by the dedicator from a professional curse writer.
A strangely persistent patch of frozen water is among the features imaged by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the best camera humans have yet sent to Mars, in the first few days since it started its main phase of science observations. It also spotted gouges from landslides that have left no visible debris behind, and a crater with a strange double rim, whose origin is unexplained. (Photos at link)
Perennial wheat? The new crop might have a range of environmental benefits, after further developmental breeding. Annual wheat, which is traditionally grown in the Great Plains, is planted in the fall and dies after harvest in mid-summer. The new perennial lines under study in Washington, Kansas, and Texas regrow after harvest and may survive for up to five years.
Children in a northern Nevada leukemia cluster are more likely to have a variation in a gene that helps combat unsafe chemicals, and more research is needed to learn why, federal researchers said Thursday.
The Bush administration will oppose European plans to require airlines to curb greenhouse gases, on grounds it would unfairly disadvantage U.S. carriers. [Legislation protecting the buggy-whip industry is expected to be sent to Capitol Hill early in the new session.]
must this government stonewall all environmental stewardship… I know the answer, but it doesn’t mean it makes any sense to me. sigh…
.
However, my recent visit to Fallujah has reaffirmed my strong conviction that as bad as the situation may sometimes appear, there is still reason to be optimistic for Iraq’s future.
Although it has been out of the headlines for some time, take a minute to recall why the name Fallujah resonates so strongly in our collective memory. Perhaps the most disturbing images of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) emanated from Fallujah on March 31, 2004, as the bodies of four murdered American contractors were desecrated and the charred corpses hung off the Euphrates River Bridge for the world to see. The “Fallujah Brigade,” a unit comprised of former Iraqi army officers, failed to prevent warlords allied with Al Qaeda in Iraq from effectively taking over the city.
BS propaganda: “… failed to prevent warlords allied with Al Qaeda in Iraq.”
Al Qaeda was not present in Iraq at the time of the invasion! The most disturbing images of OIF are the daily deaths 100+ civilians in Baghdad due to failed security of the occupying forces and, ofcourse the images of the Abu Ghraib torture chambers. Total civilian deaths since US led invasion now 150,000+.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."making an Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda was a good idea. And then we began to prove that it was a good idea and gave a brand new bunch of Iraqis a good reason to join the new Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda. I’m forever sick of bullshit I swear!
Good to see you around again, Oui. I’ve missed your comments.
Here’s some good new, yay!!!!!!