A Civil War by any other name will kill just as many

If it looks like a civil war, smells like a civil war and feels like a civil war, what else can it be?

According to Reuters AlterNet NBC finally got the message. (Also Marty Kaplan on The HuffingtonPost)

"NBC News on Monday branded the Iraq conflict a civil war -- a decision that put it at odds with the White House and that analysts said would increase public disillusionment with the U.S. troop presence there.

"NBC, a major U.S. television network, said the Iraqi government's inability to stop spiraling violence between rival factions fit its definition of civil war.


"The Bush admini -stration has for months declined to call the violence a civil war -- although the U.S. general overseeing the Iraq operation said in August there was a risk -- and a White House official on Monday disputed NBC's assessment.

"National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said while the situation on the ground is serious, neither President George W. Bush nor Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki believe it is a civil war.

"Democrats used NBC's decision to accuse the White House of "splitting hairs."

"'The American people want their leaders in Washington to tell the truth and find a solution to the problems in Iraq,' said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Stacie Paxton. 'No amount of spin on the part of the Bush White House can prevent news organizations and independent observers from calling the war ... what it is: a civil war.'"

What are they talking about?

(photo: AP)


"Vice President Dick Cheney, left, arrives Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for talks on Iraq and other trouble spots in the Mideast."

If you think they're not talking about how to make money-lots of money-on Iraqi oil. I have a bridge to sell you.

New York City Labor Chorus annual Mini-Concert

(photo by Dan Cohen)
Come celebrate the holidays and the year's end with


NEW YORK CITY LABOR CHORUS



at the 2006 Mini-Concert


MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2006

6:15 PM

IBT LOCAL 237
216 West 14th Street
Between 7th & 8th Avenues
Manhattan

Contribution: $5.00

No Tickets in Advance

A letter from Michael Moore

A letter from Michael Moore to the Democrats: exerpts

Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

"Friends,

"Tomorrow marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.

"That's right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

"And we haven't even done THAT."

___________________

"This is what we demand:

1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a way to win. We can't win.

2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends.

3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq."

___________________


"But at our core we are a good people. We may be slow learners, but that "Mission Accomplished" banner struck us as odd, and soon we began to ask some questions. Then we began to get smart. By this past November 7th, we got mad and tried to right our wrongs. The majority now know the truth. The majority now feel a deep sadness and guilt and a hope that somehow we can make make it all right again.

"Unfortunately, we can't. So we will accept the consequences of our actions and do our best to be there should the Iraqi people ever dare to seek our help in the future. We ask for their forgiveness.

"We demand the Democrats listen to us and get out of Iraq now."

Yours,

Michael Moore

U.S. Keystone Cops 'allowed terror gang to escape'

(From The Independent)

By Jason Bennetto


"A team of suspected terrorists involved in an alleged UK plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners escaped capture because of interference by the United States, The Independent has been told by counter-terrorism sources.

"An investigation by MI5 and Scotland Yard into an alleged plan to smuggle explosive devices on up to 10 passenger jets was jeopardised in August, when the US put pressure on authorities in Pakistan to arrest a suspect allegedly linked to the airliner plot.

"As a direct result of the surprise detention of the suspect, British police and MI5 were forced to rush forward plans to arrest an alleged UK gang accused of plotting to destroy the airliners. But a second group of suspected terrorists allegedly linked to the first evaded capture and is still at large, according to security sources

How can we worry about Michael Richards when Trent Lott has been welcomed back by the GOP?

Michael Richards racist tirade:



Does this mean we can expect Richards to lead the MLK Day parade? Isn't that what celebrities do after they hire a crisis manager? Remember when Mel Gibson "said he wants to meet with Jewish leaders to help him 'discern the appropriate path for healing.'" As I recall he was going to participate in some Rosh Hashana services.


"First [Richards] went on national television to apologize for his racial tirade against two black hecklers. Now Michael Richards is taking his contriteness to the next level: he's hired a public relations expert with deep contacts in the black community.

"New York publicist Howard Rubenstein took on Richards as a client Wednesday after being contacted by the actor-comedian. He then arranged for Richards to call the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

"'I've known those gentlemen for many years,' Rubenstein told The Associated Press.

"'Michael apologized profusely. He wants to heal the tremendous wound that he's inflicted on the American public, and on the African-American community,' he said."

(Read more)


Although Richards comments cannot be condoned isn't he really a minor character in a week that has seen Trent Lott rehabilitated and welcomed into the leadership of the new Republican party which has essentially abandoned the Black vote.

Remember Lott's "comment that the United States would have avoided 'all these problems' if then-segregationist Strom Thurmond had been elected president in 1948."

The perks of the presidency

Bush enjoys the perks of the job. But at least it's not in the Oval Office. And it's more than likely that the turkey won't talk to Linda Tripp.

(Photo from the WP, via BushWatch)

A wounded Bush can be very dangerous

A wounded animal can be very dangerous.


(From Common Dreams News Center

"President George W. Bush could choose military action over diplomacy and bomb Iran's nuclear facilities next year, political analysts in Washington agree."

....

"Joseph Cirincione, Senior Vice President for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, a Democrat-friendly think tank, also believes the US government could decide to attack Iran."

....


"With the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hardliners in the government have lost one of their leading advocates, and his replacement, former former Central Intelligence Agency chief Robert Gates, has in the past favored direct talks with Iran, said the expert.

"'But they remain within the administration at the highest level, the office of the vice president, the national security council staff, perhaps the president himself,' Cirincione added.

"He also accused neoconservative circles of promoting the military option against Tehran."

....

"Israel has also been pushing Washington to get tough on Iran."

(noted in BushWatch)

Nov. 27: Protest NYPD threat to our rights to freely assemble

(Photo by Dan Cohen)

ASSEMBLE FOR RIGHTS NYC OPPOSES NYPD proposed Restrictions on Political Speech in Public Spaces

Rally to voice opposition to recent New York Police Department proposals that would restrict public gatherings

Sponsored by Assemble for Rights NYC

Monday, November 27, 2006, 10-11AM

At NYPD Headquarters, One Police Plaza

Our rights to free speech and to freely assemble are again under threat from the NYC police dept!

If approved these New Rules Could Go Into Effect By The End of This Year
This is the second time this year the NYPD has tried to create new draconian rules dictating when people can peacefully assemble.
In late October the NYPD announced the latest version of new rules they plan to impose. You can read them HERE.
These rules are not significantly different from the rules the NYPD tried to sneak in during the summer, but were defeated by public outcry in August.

Sample Amy Goodman's new column

Check out Amy Goodman's new column. Here is the Nov.22 column:

"Rumsfeld and a mountain of misery"

By AMY GOODMAN

"Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, began life as a slave on Maryland's Eastern Shore. When his owner had trouble with the young, unruly slave, Douglass was sent to Edward Covey, a notorious "slave breaker." Covey's plantation, where physical and psychological torture were standard, was called Mount Misery. Douglass eventually fought back, escaped to the North and went on to change the world. Today Mount Misery is owned by Donald Rumsfeld, the outgoing secretary of defense.

It is ironic that this notorious plantation run by a practiced torturer would now be owned by Rumsfeld, himself accused as the man principally responsible for the U.S. military's program of torture and detention."


If you like it try to get your local paper to pick it up.

UCLA campus police taser an Iranian-American student

According to Amy Goodman on this morning's (Mon.) Democracy Now:

"Officials at the University of California in Los Angeles are launching an independent investigation into campus police officers' repeated shocking of an Iranian-American student with a Taser stun gun. The student was handcuffed the entire time. The incident was captured on video has and sparked outrage across his campus and the country."

Ralph Nader on the recent elections

Check out Ralph Nader's take on the recent elections on Common Dreams News Center:

"Bush's Brain, Karl Rove, outsmarted himself and lost a chance to keep control of the Senate in Republican hands. It started and ended in the Connecticut Senate race with Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman as his 'fatal attraction.'"

....

"On the Democrats' side, the recriminations against Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman, Howard Dean, have begun from the proxies for Hillary and Bill Clinton-namely, James Carville and Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL). Their ostensible hostility flows from Dean's determination to run viable Democratic Party races in all fifty states, reversing the policy of ruling out most of the so-called more conservative Red States."

Elizabeth Holtzman calls for impeaching Bush and Cheney

Former Representative Elizabeth Holtzman speaks on impeachment at a forum in Philadelphia, PA, on Nov. 11, 2006,

Next GOP Senate leader threatens to clog up the legislative pipes

Sen. Mitch McConnell


How politically tone deaf are these people? Sounds like a threat to me, but who is he threatening? Isn't this exactly the kind of stuff that the people voted against last week? - Dan

(AP - from The Raw Story)

"The Senate's next Republican leader issued a veiled threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations.

"Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will become minority leader Jan. 4, told the conservative Federalist Society Friday not to feel bad about the Senate election results because Republicans will hold 49 seats in a body that requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and bring legislation or presidential nominees to a final vote.

"If the "Democrats want our cooperation, they'll give the president's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote," McConnell said."

Who really won this month's election? And what happens now?

The votes have been counted, the celebrations have been held and the Democrats have majorities in both the House and the Senate, but the question remains: who really won this month's election?

The right-wing pundits are doing their level best to spin the results so that it appears to be a conservative leaning vote. Although, on the face of it, that appears to be ridiculous, it leads me to ask again, who won last week's election? Whose Democratic party is it?

Maybe this question will be clearer if we look at right-wing godfather Richard Viguerie's answer to John Stewart (some months ago on The Daily Show) when asked what the right still wanted given that they controlled both Congress and the White House. Viguerie (who has since written a book Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.) said that they didn't control Congress and the White House, the Republicans did. And until they were actually in control they had to depend on the Republicans.

And that's what we have to understand. We don't control Congress, the Democrats do. So, whose Democratic party is it?

This enlightening colloquy occurred several days ago between Juan Gonzales and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and activist Alice Walker on Democracy Now.

"JUAN GONZALES: I'd like to ask you, as you well know, our nation has just gone through a national election, and there's been some kind of a change. And I'm wondering whether you have any hope that this will be a significant change in the direction of the country. Or is it going to be more of the changing of the guard, but no real substantive change?

"ALICE WALKER: I think it's a good beginning, because you can see that people are awake, and they're really awakening. But it is just a beginning, and the great fear is that people will fall back now and feel that they have actually accomplished something substantive, and that is not true. We have to really just understand that we're beginning, and I think if we know that, we can continue. And one of the things I wanted to mention was how important it is now, instead of rushing forward immediately, that we take some time to reflect on where we're actually going and what kind of society we want."

So there are really three forces at work with the potential to make history at this moment: the Democrats, the Republicans and, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, "we the people" -- the last having voted to put the Democrats in charge. But the Democrats are in charge, not us.

The Democrats and the Republicans are not really "political" parties. They are really collections of legislators who are primarily interested, like all of us, in keeping their jobs. And no matter what "we the people" voted for last week the Democrats will, if history teaches us anything, go back to business as usual as soon as possible. That's why we have to keep applying pressure to remind them why they won control of Congress and what we expect of them.



I suppose how we apply pressure depends on who "we" are. It can mean anything from writing letters, making phone calls and signing petitions on specific issues to massive street demonstrations, particularly to end the war - which may be the first order of business for the upcoming congressional session. But not sitting back and waiting for the results of our votes. Remember the old religious saw - "god helps those who help themselves" - applies in politics as well.

John Stewart (The Daily Show) on 2008 candidates

John Stewart on 2008 candidates

SNL - Nancy Pelosi

Robert Gates controversial history

By Robert Parry
from Consortiumnews

"One risk of putting career intelligence officer Robert Gates in charge of the Defense Department is that he has a secret – and controversial – history that might open him to pressure from foreign operatives, including some living in countries of U.S. military interest, such as Iran and Iraq.

"Put more crudely, the 63-year-old Gates could become the target of pressure or even blackmail unless some of the troubling questions about his past are answered conclusively, not just cosmetically."

the Bush turns to daddy

Father knows best

Interview with Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, who wrote this week's article on the Bush turning to his father's made men to pull his rocks out of the fire.

Ellen Willis: 1941-2006

I was sad to read about the death of Ellen Willis, a founder of Redstockings, an early and militant feminist organization, and ongoing cultural and political critic.

Although I didn't know Ellen I have known her life partner Stanley Aronowitz for many years. Their work stands for the ideals that need to inform any serious democratic left politics.


Ellen never shied away from the tough issues. From her 1985 Village Voice article, "Abortion: Whose Right to Life is it Anyway" which is still the definitive word on the centrality of the right to control one's body to the very possibility of women's liberation to her recent critique of Tom Frank and "the lefties who love him."

The women's movement and any serious left will be less without her. But in her honor we need to keep fighting for the ideals she insisted we adhere to.

For lots more on Ellen, see Bitch/Lab blog