t r u t h o u t - Destruction Easier Than Reconstruction

t r u t h o u t - Destruction Easier Than Reconstruction: "While politicians deliberate over Iraq's future, Iraqis are dealing with the reality of the present. They are looking at the debris of a country where reconstruction has come to a standstill.

They are also looking at a situation in which the capital of the oil-rich country has been stricken recently by a dire shortage of gas and kerosene.

Iraqis in Baghdad had been receiving 12 to 13 hours of electricity a day on average over recent months. Over the past few weeks they say supply has fallen to just a few hours a day.

'We have no services at all,' Usama Asa'ad, a 31 year-old mechanic told IPS. 'Our electricity is on only one or two hours a day.'"

Bush has lost Iraq.

Professionals Fleeing Iraq As Violence, Threats Persist

Professionals Fleeing Iraq As Violence, Threats Persist: "Iraq's top professionals -- doctors, lawyers, professors -- and businessmen have been targeted by shadowy political groups for kidnapping and ransom, as well as murder, some of them say. So many have fled the country that Iraq is in danger of losing the core of skilled people it needs most just as it is trying to build a newly independent society."

I've written it before, and I will write again. Iraq is lost. Bush lost Iraq. It is over. Done. Bush has failed in Iraq. And that is left to reckon with are the consequences.

My opinion Molly Ivins : Demos need to grow spine | www.azstarnet.com ®

My opinion Molly Ivins : Demos need to grow spine | www.azstarnet.com ®: "Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can."

Calculated Risk: Iran

Calculated Risk: Iran: "In my economic predictions for 2006, I included this caveat:

So, without trying to predict natural disasters, a pandemic or human stupidity (terrorism, bombing Iran, etc.), ...

And for some reason I'm reminded of the fictional character Forrest Gump's quip: 'Stupid is as stupid does.' Lets hope the US is not stupid this time, otherwise $68/barrel WTI oil might look cheap, and my 2006 economic predictions wildly wrong."

Fear of liberal bias

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: "So much of the imbalance and shallowness of press coverage today stems from a simple fact: reporters know they'll catch hell from the right if they say or write anything that can even remotely be construed as representing 'liberal bias'. "

Is fear of the appearance of liberal bias driving press coverage?

Or, is it simply that most pundits and editors and publishers are Right-Wing Repubicans?

I tend to think the latter.

If You Give a Congressman a Cookie - New York Times

If You Give a Congressman a Cookie - New York Times: "The two of us have been immersed in Washington politics for more than 36 years. We have never seen the culture so sick or the legislative process so dysfunctional. "

Norman Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann have co-authored a NY Times op-ed, and in it, they have focused on the essential problem, which is not that lobbyists have influence, but that the breakdown of the rules in the House of Representatives has made it so easy to achieve results by nefarious means.

Arrogance and Hubris in Iraq

NO QUARTER: The Arrogance and Hubris of Jerry Bremer: "Jerry and others can try to rewrite history to rehab their reputations, but the facts on the ground in Iraq will not and should not permit that kind of delusional revisionism. We are not in the position we are today by accident. It was a deliberate choice. From George Bush to Medal of Freedom winners Jerry Bremer and George Tenet, choices were made where alternative information and expertise were ignored. This deadly combination of arrogance and hubris has produced a policy in Iraq that is killing American soldiers and Iraqi civilians and is weakening U.S. influence and prestige in the Middle East. I think it is a time for humility, a virtue sadly lacking in Jerry Bremer’s new book."


That Bush et alia do not yet understand how big a mistake they made in Iraq is a measure of just how stupid they are. Iraq is lost. "is"! The consequences are not completely realized, but that will come in time, and it is all bad.