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Saturday, December 9, 2006 |
McClatchy: "American political leaders watched with alarm during the past week as the Hezbollah militia laid siege to the U.S.-backed Lebanese government, but few would acknowledge publicly what most analysts and politicians here say is obvious: American policy may bear much of the blame.
Many in Beirut say that U.S. failure to stop Israel's onslaught against Hezbollah last summer crippled the Lebanese government - a U.S. ally - while strengthening Hezbollah - a U.S. enemy. That created an environment in which the Shiite Muslim militia could call for overthrowing Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his Cabinet.
'Hezbollah has more support in the population now because they are the victorious resistance,' Cabinet member Ahmed Fatfat said. 'And it weakened the government because we did not get any concessions ... the last war was a disaster for Lebanon and the image of the United States."
Guardian: "George Bush is being routinely condemned as one of the worst presidents ever, and his Iraq policy no longer enjoys the support of a large swath of the American establishment. The neoconservatives suddenly find themselves isolated and embattled: Rumsfeld has been sacked, Cheney has gone quiet, the likes of Richard Perle are confined to the sidelines. The president is on his own and it is difficult to see how Bush can avoid moving towards the ISG position. The political map is being redrawn with extraordinary alacrity.
Before our eyes, the neoconservative position is disintegrating. Its foreign-policy tenets have been shown to be false. As is now openly admitted, they have brought the US to the verge of disaster in Iraq, which is why the American version of the 'men in grey suits' has ridden to the rescue. After less than six years in office, elected at a time when the US was unchallenged as the sole superpower, the Bush administration has managed to deliver the country to the edge of what can only be compared to a Vietnam moment: the political and military defeat of the central and defining plank of American foreign policy."
12:25:34 PM 
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SFGate: "Despite an intensified campaign against poverty, World Bank programs have failed to lift incomes in many poor countries during the past decade, leaving tens of millions of people with stagnating and even declining living standards, according to a report released Thursday by the bank's autonomous assessment arm.
Among 25 poor countries probed in detail by the bank's Independent Evaluation Group, only 11 saw reductions in poverty between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, while the other 14 suffered the same or worse rates over that term. The group said the sample is representative of the global picture."
Ah, those wonderful fairy tales of the Western press. As if it was the aim of the World Bank to eradicate poverty. The aim of the World Bank is to increase poverty, thereby lowering wages and providing opportunities for the neocon rich. Once more the World Bank has succeeded in furthering its aims.
12:13:46 PM
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AlterNet: "Carter scares the shit out of right wingers.
'Some Israelis believe they have the right to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land and try to justify the sustained subjugation and persecution of increasingly hopeless and aggravated Palestinians.'"
Carter's new book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid is the cause of the right-wing anger.
And, please, AlterNet, stop using *s. It's 'shit', and you can find the word in the dictionary.
12:08:25 PM
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In those days George Dubya Bush issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire American world. Soldiers were sent out to register all enemies of his Empire. The Godlike one sent his mighty angels to take vengeance on the evil ones. Dubya's little helpers from Albion were waiting to take action. The night was falling and the little helpers were comforted by Dubya's friendly fire all around. Twas that time of the year again. The stars and stripes twinkled in the sky.
Guardian: "A Royal Marine killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday may have been a victim of 'friendly fire' from a US jet, it has been claimed."
Scotsman: "Tony Blair has declared in Washington that he has no regrets about his alliance with George W Bush, even as the two men had to backtrack over the Iraq war."
There is only a small difference of one word between stating one has no regrets and admitting one has regrets. Having to speak out one's 'no regret' is the first step.
Cartoon.
11:58:54 AM
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