Instahoglets 29th Dec

Nearly the end of the year, but time and news stop for no blogger.

Big News Story More Memogate from the UK. Lenin's Tomb has all the details of how the UK government are trying to stop former UK ambassador Craig Murray releasing documents that prove both the UK and the US indulge in and condone torture. I'm worried because for me at least, the outrage at being lied to again by King George and Tory Blur has subsided to a dull persistent ache. I think I have Lying Bastard Fatigue.

Knight Ridder's recent headline story about Kurdish peshmerga terrorists infiltrating the Iraqi army with a view towards a seperate Kurdis state has drawn a contradiction-filled statement from the Kurdish chief of staff of the Iraqi army. On Thursday, al-Zebari's office released a statement saying that the quotes in the story weren't representative of the defense ministry and charging that they "are false and created by followers of the ex-regime to frustrate the Iraqi brave army's will." It wasn't clear whether the ministry was accusing Kurdish soldiers - almost all staunch opponents of the former regime of Saddam Hussein - or the Knight Ridder reporter of ties to the former regime.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi police force has problems too. To the extent that the U.S. army in Baghdad plans to deploy large numbers of troops with Iraqi special police units to try to curb suspected sectarian militia activity among the police. A US military spokesperson admitted The lines are blurred now and it's not easy to determine that some operation tonight was directed ... by the MoI (Interior Ministry) or ... by some people in uniform ... who are part of somebody's posse.

We will stand down as the Iraqi security forces stand up for their own sectarian militias.

And in further Iraqi news, ArabicNews.com is reporting that Chairman of the commission Hussein al-Hindawi said that his commission will announce in the few coming days decisions to cancel the elections in Baghdad- al-Rasafah, Baghdad all-Karakh, Irbil, Ninwa, Karkouk, Deyali and al-Anbar.

Corrupt elections, partisan "police" raids in the night and reporters arrested for criticising the regime. You just know the wingnuts would like to re-import democracy Iraqi-style to the US, don't you?

But at least one conservative still has lucid moments. Prof Bainridge writes that Bush has admitted to pissing away the conservative moment: We can debate whether invading Iraq was a necessary step in the War on Terror. What we can no longer debate is that the Iraq War has brought the larger conservative agenda to a crashing halt. This in response to the WaPo's story on how the White House has been spinning and re-spinning the Iraq War.

Matt Yglesias seems as puzzled by the taxonomy of the Bull Moose as I am, and offers some words for him: There's been a very strange effort on the part of these people to re-write history to make themselves out to be some kind of beleaguered minority watching from the sidelines as a militantly dovish Democratic Party goes down in defeat after defeat. But Democrats were following their advice during the fiasco of 2002, and it was their people who went down to defeat in 2004. If Democratic doves have gained strength since then, it's because the war keeps going badly and the hawks' promises to lead the party into the electoral promised land keep turning out wrong. What he said.

All your computers are belong to U.S. - especially if you've been anywhere near the NSA's website, where they've been using permanent tracking cookies in contravention of federal rules.

The Heretik has a sordid tale of Virginian closet racism, as expressed in the city of Manassas where an ordnance tells you how many people you can have in a house, and how they can be related to you. Manassas Vice Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II. says The issue is the impact of overcrowding in our community. It looks as though that issue is a direct result of illegal immigration. but the first victims of the ordnance are US citizens, albeit originally from Honduras.

It being close to the end of the year, the "Lists for 2005" are starting. Here's a good one - "the most outrageous statements of 2005" by rightwing media figures - from the good folks at Media Matters. All contributed to that dull ache of outrgae I mentioned earlier.

Hey, here's an idea...contribute your own suggestion for a 2005 List of "somethings" (Biggest single lie, worst dressed, whatever) and I will see what I can do. Maybe even suggest some nominees.