Monday, August 15, 2005

Lingua Franca CNN lost no time in creating a "Deadlock in Iraq" graphic for their story about the delay in drafting the Iraqi constitution.  The only thing missing was a rhythm track to go with the unintentional rap music title. During the pre-game warmup for Condominium Rice's press conference on the subject, Wolf Blitzer profiled the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilizad, whom Rice calls "Zal" in the charming folksy manner of the Bush regime.  I transcribed the following Blitzer soundbite from the broadcast: "Not only was he [Khalilizad] born in Afghanistan, he's a Muslim, he speaks Arabic." Of course, just as Jews the world over speak Hebrew, all Muslims -- especially those in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country -- speak Arabic. In fact, the Afghans gave up their native tongues, Dari and Pashto, the moment bin Laden and his entourage arrived, and immediately began speaking Arabic. Appropriately, the appearance of the ignorant asshole Blitzer on CNN was sponsored by Freedhem, the one-application hemorrhoidal cream. 7:06:49 PM

The Greenhouse Effect According to a report on NPR's Weekend Edition: A deal announced last week arranges for the Palestinian Authority to purchase and run greenhouses from Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip, allowing the multimillion-dollar agricultural business to continue after the planned Israeli pullout from settlements begins later this week. Liane Hansen speaks with Steven Cohen of the Israel Policy Forum. It remains to be seen whether this boost to Gaza's economy will advance the peace process and counteract the White House Effect -- i.e. Bush's carte blanche endorsement of everything Sharon does, including the expansion of West Bank settlements.  12:58:01 PM