Yes, President Barack Obama is a hypocrite pushing vouchers for schools while insisting they will destroy Medicare (they will destroy both).
West Nile continues to spread and there was another death in Dallas. Naomi Spencer (WSWS) reports:
At least 43 people have died and 1,221 others have been confirmed as infected across 38 states. West Nile virus has been detected in humans, mosquitoes, or birds in all but three states (Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont). “In comparison, one month ago, there were only 25 people with West Nile virus disease reported to the CDC,” Petersen said.
The virus is spread to humans by mosquitoes that contract the virus from infected birds. Approximately 20 percent of people who contract West Nile develop symptoms including high fever, headaches, swollen lymph glands, and a rash across the chest. A small number of those afflicted by fever will develop potentially fatal neurological complications, including inflammation of the brain or spinal cord. The elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable to the illness.
Health officials expect that cases will continue to rise through the end of September. West Nile virus typically peaks in mid-August, but symptoms of the illness can take a couple of weeks to develop, delaying diagnosis and reporting. Cases recently reported reflect infections from early August.
Three-quarters of the cases have been reported from five states: Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota and Oklahoma. Half of all cases are from Texas, with a concentration of the virus in Dallas and a four-county surrounding area.
The four county surrounding area?
I had an e-mail asking me about that. I will check with Dallas community members tomorrow. But what I remember from my visit to Texas a few years back is: Denton County (right above Dallas County and has lakes) and Tarrant County (right on the west, this is where Fort Worth is). I am sorry but those are two and I have no idea on the other two. I am pulling a blank on what is below Dallas. (Austin is way, way, way below. Houston is below as well. It may be Ellis County but I am not sure.)
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Monday,
August 27, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, some women are forced to
wear the veil (and 'morality police' scrub the women's faces of make
up), Nouri's Cabinet loses a member, Jalal Talabani remains in Germany,
Julian Assange's defense needs to learn about perceptions and how to
present their case to a public that's really not into all the hype and
drama, Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr run on issues, War Criminal Tony
Blair might get arrested in South Africa, and more.
Starting with War Criminals. Over the weekend, PBS' Religion & Ethics (link is text and video) featured
Tony Blair in what Blair probably thought would be part of the hazy
gauzy comeback he's been working so hard for yet even it had to let a
little sunlight in. Excerpt:
SEVERSON:
Unfortunately for the former prime minister, many in his own country
would not say the same of him. It's been almost ten years since the Iraq
invasion, and still there are newspaper stories with negative headlines
about Blair's role in the Iraq war.
O'SHAUGHNESSY:
I will never forget what he's done, and you would have to hold me over
hot coals several times before you get me to vote for him again.
SEVERSON:
Hugh O'Shaughnessy is a noted British author on developing-world issues
who, like many, felt betrayed when Blair led the country into war.
O'SHAUGHNESSY:
People still keep in their minds the way he treated public opinion. He
brushed public opinion aside and launched into this illegal, cruel and
lawless war.
Now Tony's off to South Africa and Money Web reports a
protest is planned for Johannesburg and quotes the president of the Al
Jama-ah political party Ganief Hendricks stating, "The democration is
being held to support a warrant of arrest to charge him for crimes
against humanity relating to the invasion of Iraq which led to the
killings of millions of Iraqis." Arrest Blair For Crimes Against Peace notes his scheduled appearance in Johannesburg at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit on Thursday and the site reminds:
Anyone attempting an arrest which meets the rules laid down here will be entitled to one quarter of the money collected at the time of his or her application.
Money
donated to this site will be used for no other purpose than to pay
bounties for attempts to arrest Tony Blair. All the costs of
administering this site will be paid by the site's founder.*
The intention is to encourage repeated attempts to arrest the former prime minister. We have four purposes:
- To remind people that justice has not yet been done.
-
To show Mr Blair that, despite his requests for people to "move on"
from Iraq, the mass murder he committed will not be forgotten.
-
To put pressure on the authorities of the United Kingdom and the
countries he travels through to prosecute him for a crime against peace,
or to deliver him for prosecution to the International Criminal Court.
- To discourage other people from repeating his crime.
We
have no interest in people's motivation, as long as they follow the
rules laid down by this site. If they try to arrest Mr Blair because
they care about the people he has killed, so much the better. But if
they do it only for the money, that is fine too, and we will have
encouraged an attempt which would not otherwise have taken place.
TJ Strydom (Times Live) notes
what can only be seen as a weak defense by the group that's asked him
to speak -- Discovery Life's chief executive Herschel Mayers states,
"We're not saying that we support him or that we don't support him, but
he is a prominent international leader and we are glad to have him
speaking."
From a former UK government official to a current US one, Al Rafidayn reported
this morning that a US delegation will arrive in Baghdad September 3rd
and that US Vice President Joe Biden will be leading it. The Turkish Press states
Biden will be discussing events in Syria and that it "will be the
highest level visit by a U.S. official" in 2012. Presumably Joe Biden
will have the appropriate paperwork. Dar Addustour reports 5 British citizens were arrested in Baghdad yesterday -- they did not have passports or i.d. on them.
Moving to oil, Seyhmus Cakan, Ayla Jean Yackley and Nick Tattersall (Reuters) report that a pipeline carrying crude oil from Iraq to Turkey has been shut down as a result of a fire and that how the fire broke out is not known at this time. Xinhua identifies the pipeline as the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline and notes that "Turkish troops were deployed in the area" after the fire broke out. Hemn Hadi (AKnews) adds, "The fire occured in Dorkulu village in Slopi town." Press TV observes, "The pipeline, which carries a quarter of Iraq's oil exports, has been attacked several times in the past, sometimes cutting oil flows from Iraq for days. PKK has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks." Reuters quotes the Ministry of Oil's Asim Jihad declaring, "We were informed by the Turkish authorities that a blast and then a fire ignited on the 40-inch export pipeline on the Turkish side and we had to halt the crude flow. We demand that the Turkish authorities work without any delay to repair the damage quickly and to help switch the flow to the second 46-inch alternate line to ensure no more disruption to Iraq's exports to Ceyhan port."
The Voice of Russia reports,
"The security forces in Turkey have announced that it was a terrorist
attack and that they suspect it was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers
Party." In addition, Dar Addustour notes Saturday a waiting room in the Ministry of Finance caught on fire due to electrical wiring.
Saturday kicks off September. As August winds down, the body count continues to rise. Iraq Body Count notes that through Thursday violence has claimed 364 lives. Bahrain News Agency reports,
"An officer Iraqi Interior Ministry border garrisons in the rank of
brigadier was killed by gunmen who targeted the officer's automobile in
northern Baghdad today" and a Mosul roadside bombing targeting a
military patrol left two children injured. Bushra Juhi (AP) reports a Haditha roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 person and left four Iraqi soldiers injured. In addition, Alsumaria notes
the PKK -- Kurdish independence group seen as a terrorist group by some
nations including Turkey -- has announced that they killed 10 Turkish
soldiers and 1 of their own was killed in the never-ending battles
between the PKK and the Turkish military that take place on Iraq's
border with Turkey.
Over the weekend, All Iraq News noted
that Hussein al-Mansouri, an MP for Moqtada's bloc, states that the
lack of people to lead the security ministries creates problems and
prevents the Ministy of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior from
properly carrying out their duties. Two weekends ago, Nouri's State of
Law was insisting that as soon as Eid al-Fitr was over, Nouri would be
nominating people to head the security ministiries. He was supposed to
do that in December of 2010. They have instead remained without
leadership. All Iraq News also reported
National Alliance MP Jawad al-Bolani was calling for the creation of a
nation terrorism and crime council. In Nouri's first term as prime
minister, Jawad al-Bulani served as Minister of the Interior. If his
proposal sounds familiar, it's what's in the Erbil Agreement. It's
what, November 11, 2010, Nouri was expected to create (and agreed to
when he signed the Erbil Agreement). However, he instead announced that
he couldn't do it yet, that it would take awhile. (This prompted the
bulk of Iraqiya to walk out of the session of Parliament.)
Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports
the Communications Network Commission is denying media reports that
they were used by Nouri's security agencies to spy on Nouri's political
rivals. The claim might be more convincing if the CNC didn't get caught
up in splitting hairs and lost in the weeds of wiretaps. None of the
media reports I saw referred to legal wiretaps so the CDC's distraction
of courts and what's needed for a wire tap is besides the point.
Further harming the CNC's messaging is Alsumaria's report that the Minister of Communication, Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, just announced his resignation. Al Mada adds
that there was conflict between Allawi and Nouri with Allawi stressing
the professional purpose of the ministry and Nouri allegedly wanting to
use it for "personal and partisan interests." Mohammed Tawfiq Alawi is
a cousin of Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi. Nouri's people whisper to Al
Mada that the ministry was riddled with corruption and that Allawi
resigned only after Nouri presented him with charges of corruption.
Others say the corruption is rooted in Nouri who entered into illegal
telecom deals with close friends. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq Tweeted:
Mohammed Tawfeeq
AFP quotes Allawi stating, "I resigned because Maliki refused to . . . (stop) political interference in my ministry." BBC News points out,
"Mr Allawi is thought to be the first member of the national unity
government to resign since it was formed in 2010. Last year, Electricity
Minister Raad Shallal al-Ani, an independent who was nominated by
Iraqiyya, was sacked after allegedly authorising £1.1bn ($1.7bn) of
improper contracts for power stations with foreign companies." Reuters quotes
from his resignation letter, "I present my resignation because I have
become incapable of working in such an infested environment." AP adds that he told Nouri to stop meddiling, "reinstate some officials he ordered transferred" or that he would resign his post.
AFP's Prashant Rao Tweeted:
Prashant Rao
Minister
of State for Provincial Affairs Torhan al-Mufti (Turkman-Iraqiya) to be
acting Minister of Comms: Ministry of Comms official @AFP
As Rao noted, al-Mufti is Iraqiya as was Allawi. Trend News Agency notes, "There has been no word yet from the prime minister on the allegations." Raman Brosk (AKnews) informs,
"Political observers stated that the resignation of the Minister of
Communications may deepen the gap between Iraqiya List and State of Law
Coalition."
In addition, the outlet reports
Iraqiya' MP Jawad al-Bolani is calling for the creation of a nation
terrorism and crime council. If that sounds familiar, it's what's in
the Erbil Agreement. It's what, November 11, 2010, Nouri was expected
to create (and agreed to when he signed the Erbil Agreement). However,
he instead announced that he couldn't do it yet, that it would take
awhile. (This prompted the bulk of Iraqiya to walk out of the session
of Parliament.)
Let's turn to the political crisis. Nouri
al-Maliki is the prime minister and his political slate is State of
Law. The other major players are Ayad Allawi, the leader of Iraqiya,
and Moqtada al-Sadr
Yesterday, the offices of Moqtada al-Sadr were bombed. Alsumaria notes
that Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi condemned the attacks today
in a statement. Iraq has been gripped by a political crisis for over a
year. Last summer, Iraqiya, the Kurds and Moqtada al-Sadr were calling
for Nouri al-Maliki to implement the Erbil Agreement -- a US brokered
contract that ended the first political stalemate -- the eight months
that followed the Parliamentary elections -- and allowed Nouri to have
a second term as prime minister. Nouri has refused. In April, various
blocs met again in Erbil and decided to pursue a no-confidence vote in
Nouri. Signatures were gathered and then President of Iraq Jalal
Talabani tossed it aside. He quickly fled to Germany, claiming he
needed life-saving surgery (he had knee surgery) and he's remained there
ever since. All Iraq News reports that Moqtada sent a delegation to meet with Jalal today in Germany. This comes as Al Mada reports that Talabani met with German politicians on Thursday and declared that the crisis would be over soon. This as State
of Law MP Salman al-Moussawi is stating that the crisis can't end until
Talabani returns to Iraq because the dialogue can't continue in his
absence.
As Sheikh (Dar Addustour) weighs in
stating that no one denies Jalal's role in the political balance and he
notes Jalal's call for a national conference. December 21st, Jalal and
Osama al-Nujaifi made the call for a national conference, Nouri blew
them off with a variety of excuses over a variety of months. At the end
of March, Jalal just announced that it would take place April 4th. To
save face, Nouri went along with it and then State of Law worked
overtime to torpedo it forcing Osama al-Nujaifi to announce the day of
the conference that it had been called off. This month, Jalal renewed
his call for a national conference. As Sheik notes that Jalal's saying
the conference will be held and that reforms will be in place to
guarantee rights and this will be done for the benefit of all but
while Jalal may be serious the hopes seem to be too high in light of the
reality of the political crisis.
Turning to sports, Alsumaria reports that Baghdad is organizing the first official tournament for women in the Iraqi Federation of Weightlifting. This will allow the athletes to participate in the Arab Championship taking place in Morroco at the end of September. It should also hopefully lay the groundwork for Iraqi women to compete in the weighlifting of the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Amir al-Daghistani (AKnews) reports, "The head of the Iraqi Swimming Federation said Monday that Baghdad would host Iraq's swimming championship on the Tirgris River in Baghdad on Friday." Mohammed Karezi (AKnews) adds, "Erbil's karate clubs championship will begin on September 10 at the karate academy hall in the city, said the head of Erbil's branch of the Kurdistan Karate Federation."
From equal playing fields to unequal ones, Ayad al-Tamimi (Al Mada) reports
the city of Kadhimiya is moving to prevent any woman from entering the
city unless she is covered by a veil and that a group known as the
morality police are following men and women in the city who were the
hair 'differently' and that they stop women without veils and force them
to put on veils -- they also force women wearing make up to remove it.
Force? At least one woman has been beaten by the 'morality police.' Raman Brosk (AKnews) notes
that despite local press insisting this new law on the veil was passed
by both the local government and the Baghdad Provincial Council, the
provinice is stating, via the head of their legal committee Subbar
al-Saadi, "Baghdad Provincial Council did not issue such a resolution. A
decision was issued to wear a head scarf or abaya inside the holy
courtyard in the religious shrines in Kadhimiya, Najaf, Karbala or
Samurra."
Iraq has many prisons. Mohammed Tawfeeq Tweeted on prison statistics today:
Nearly 29000 inmates in #Iraq's prisons, according to Statistics released by Iraq's Justice ministry on Mon.
Meanwhile Al Rafidayn notes that there are 68 Iraqi prisoners in Saudi Arabia.
On this week's Law and Disorder Radio, an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights)
topics addressed include an update on Julian Assange, a discussion of
the Cuban Five with attorney Martin Garbus, a discussion on global
warming with professor Eleanor Stein and a strong conversation on the
International Criminal Court with attorney Roger Wareham. Excerpt of
the Assange update.
|
Michael
Ratner: But he [Julian Assange] gave, I thought, a very good talk. I
particularly liked it because he emphasized the attacks on whistle
blowers and publishers of secrets, of corruption articles, of
criminality of governments and didn't really talk very much about
himself but about others like Bradley Manning who are under the
government's gun in terms of the government's suppression of secrecy and
going after whistle blowers. I thought he looked courageous in doing
it. He's a courageous man for what he's been able to do. But you're
seeing now a reaction, particularly among the major media and others --
the Guardian, the New York Times -- which is writing
some very nasty stuff both about Correa, the president of Ecuador, and
Ecuador, about what should happen to Ecuador because they gave asylum.
You, of course, saw the article that the British claimed they were going
to attack and assault the Embassy to get Assange out of there. I
think the British made a huge mistake in doing that, it backfired.
Embassies are sacrosanct. The idea that the British were going to go in
there to pull out Julian Assange was pretty remarkable --
The
idea that the British were going to do that? That idea came from
screaming crazies on Democracy Now!, remember? That wasn't what
happened. From All Things Considered (NPR -- link is audio and text), August 16th:
Melissa
Block: I'm Melissa Block. And we begin this hour with a diplomatic
standoff. Ecuador has granted asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of
WikiLeaks. Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's small embassy in
London for eight weeks trying to avoid being extradited to Sweden for
questioning over allegations of sexual assault. Now, he can't leave.
British authorities say they'll arrest him if he steps foot outside the
embassy. They've also issued a rare warning to Ecuador. To arrest
Assange, they say, they might even enter the embassy. NPR's Philip
Reeves has our story.
[. . .]
Philip
Reeves: Under international law, embassies worldwide are treated as if
they're sovereign territory of the nations occupying them. The security
services of the host nation can't just enter and arrest someone.
However, Britain is now brandishing another law that it passed in the
1980s. That says it can revoke the embassy building's diplomatic status
if that building is not being used purely for diplomatic purposes.
British Foreign Minister William Hague again.
It's
time for Julian's defense to buy a clue. It's no longer playing and
hasn't been. A UK poll found a gender gap on Assange. No surprise,
after his defenders insulted and trashed the two women and after that
IDIOT Craig Murray went on the BBC this month and violated the BBC
policy by naming one of the women accusing Assange of assault -- naming
the woman even as the BBC host told him not to -- there's no way you're
going to get women back. You'd have to gag John Pilger and all the
other idiots.
You've had no interest in
curbing the hatred of women from your goons. Michael Ratner is part of
the defense. He needs to be working on those issue. He didn't. Not
only do women not support Assange, men in England don't either.
And
lying and creating drama and trauma doesn't help the defense or sway
public opinon on Julian. At this point, the perception is that Julian
Assange is a coward. That's reality -- people see him that way. If
that's not what he is, the defense needs to work on improving his
image. They don't do that by screaming and playing high drama, they
don't do that by playing like the entire world is against poor little
Julian.
Part of being a successful defense
team is knowing when to tone it down, when to reel it in. Ratner is one
member of a large defense team. He's not responsible for the entire
defense strategy. However, when he's on his show (and Heidi's show and
Michael Smith's show), he can say what he wants. His current efforts
are not helping Julian Assange. All they're doing is piling on the
drama, turning it into a tawdry soap opera. That's not his intent. But
it's what he's doing and that's in part because Ratner and the others
have apparently not sat down in months to consider what Julian Assange's
image has become.
Here are few tips: He's a
journalist or he's a whistle blower. He can't be both. They like to
bring up the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg. Daniel was a whistle
blower. The New York Times and the Washington Post
published the Pentagon Papers, they were journalistic outlets.
Supporters cannot be all over the map on this point. It's one or the
other. Spreading themselves so thin with their arguments have allowed
public opinion to punch holes through it. It's past time the defense
regroups and rethinks.
The current image is
Julian Assange is accused of assault and Julian Assange refused to go to
Sweden -- he's now broken bail -- and keeps insisting on conditions
before he will submit to questioning.
The
defense has failed to make any case to justify that. Equally true, you
may need to consider playing up 'poor Julian, his nerves.' Because this
garbage about he's so strong is only forcing people (UK mainly but it's
going to bleed over to the US) to ask, "Well if he's so strong, why's
he afraid to face questioning in Sweden? And if he's going to argue he
might be deported from Sweden to the US, why isn't he prepared to stand
up for what he believes in?"
The defense team
needs to grasp -- and real quick because you are losing the people on
this -- that 'strong' Julian looks pretty weak in a culture where people
take brave stands regardless of the cost.
Here's another take on Julian Assange.
Robin
Morgan: For example, Julian Assange you know that he's been wanted for
some time in Sweden for questioning on accusations of rape, sexual
molestation and unlawful coercion brought by two women in Stockholm. So
he's fled and he's been in Britain which wants to extradite him to
Sweden and he fought court cases and he lost court cases and so now he
has taken refuge in and been given asylum by Ecuador in their Embassy in
London from whence he holds forth denouncing women in Sweden as
feminists -- denouncing Sweden as feminist -- Ah, take that Sweden! --
and posturing himself as a martyr to free speech and journalism because
he claims the US is vamping on him because of WikiLeaks of classified
documents. But the interesting thing to me now is that this great
champion of press freedom and martyr to it taking refuge in Ecuador's
embassy. The current president of Ecuador Rafael Correa and his regime
-- it's a leftist regime but it is authoritarian -- has been accused
of persecuting and jailing journalists who criticize him and his
policies. So I'd like to know what part of "no" and what part of
cognitive dissonance Julian does not understand? So many troglodytes so
little time.
|
Michael
Ratner needs to figure out if he's defending Julian Assange or
Ecuador? He needs to pick one client to work for and only one. If
Julian's under assault is the talking point and suddenly you want to
whine -- and whine is the word -- about poor Ecuador, you look like
Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling as you insist that everyone
on your side -- country or individual -- is being persecuted and
threatened. Quick, let's get Julia Roberts to whisper, "Everyone I've
told about the brief is dead." And those aware of human rights -- and
we noted this two weeks ago -- are well aware of the sorry state of
human rights in Ecuador.
Robin Morgan's
comments are from her weekly rant -- her just started weekly rant which
she does at the start of her new radio program ("rant" is not being
pejorative, she labels it a "rant" on air). WMC Live with Robin Morgan debuted yesterday and airs each Sunday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST online and on DC's WPWC 1480 AM radio. Ava
and I are planning on covering the show as part of a media mix Sunday
at Third but I'll note now that Robin's already exhibited a natural
radio persona that most listeners should want to check in on regularly.
The show will have podcasts and more and we'll note some more of that
this week.
In the US, the presidential
election is underway and there are two campaigns made up of four women,
two presidential tickets. The four: Jill Stein has the Green Party's presidential nomination and her running mate is Cheri Honkala and Roseanne Barr has the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party and her running mate is Cindy Sheehan. Click
here to sign a petition calling on Ms. magazine and Women's Media
Center to cover her campaign and the other female candidate for
president Roseanne Barr's campaign. Over 250 people
have signed onto the petition so far. Some sign and leave comments and
we noted some of the comments in Sunday's "Women Win When Women Run: The conversation Roseanne and Jill are inspiring"
at Third -- and "women win when women run" is a theme that repeats in
the comments with several people signing noting that theme or expanding
on it.
Today let's look at some of the issues the two campaigns are raising. Roseanne and Cindy are running on many issues including:
Equal Rights for All
America
runs best on diversity, freedom of thought and many ideas interjected
from many kinds of people--collective intelligence. We need our
differences! Current laws should not restrict people on whom they can
love or where they can live and work. Racial or any other kind of
profiling is not American and makes innocent citizens into criminals. We
need to revamp our laws. Equality is what was truly intended by our
nation's founders.
National Security / War / Peace
Wars
make the stock market go up and are fueled by profits. Where one puts
their money is where one puts their energy. The Military Industrial
Complex is our shadow government. If we are going to bring on America
the same things that we have done in other countries then we need to get
up off our knees and fight against those who would take away our
freedoms. War is already over. Let's work together to make war obsolete.
Food & Water Safety
Clean
water and preservation of natural water sources is paramount to our
survival. Those that lead us have allowed the corporations to cross over
the web of life and they have destroyed the genetic code. In the
process, they have befouled our food and water supply. We need real
discussions and rapid action about future water sources, greening our
neighborhoods and growing natural, organic food.
And Jill and Cheri's Green New Deal includes the following:
1.
The right to employment through a Full Employment Program that will
create 25 million jobs by implementing a nationally funded, but locally
controlled direct employment initiative replacing unemployment offices
with local employment offices offering public sector jobs which are
"stored" in job banks in order to take up any slack in private sector
employment.
• Local communities will use
a process of broad stakeholder input and democratic decisionmaking to
fairly implement these programs.
• Pay-to-play prohibitions will ensure that campaign contributions or lobbying favors do not impact decision-making.
• We will end unemployment in America once and for all by guaranteeing
a job at a living wage for every American willing and able to work.
2.
Worker's rights including the right to a living wage, to a safe
workplace, to fair trade, and to organize a union at work without fear
of firing or reprisal.
3. The right to quality health care which will be achieved through a single-payer Medicare-for-All program.
4.
The right to a tuition-free, quality, federally funded, local
controlled public education system from pre-school through college. We
will also forgive student loan debt from the current era of unaffordable
college education.