Instahoglets 29th Jan 06

I've a question. Does Hindrocket have a big poster of Bush's ass on his bedroom wall that he kisses before he goes to sleep each night?

There's a great op-ed by blogger Hossein Derakhshan over at the NY Times today about Bush's double standards when it comes to not-quite-fully democratic elections in Iran, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere. The criticism is echoed by Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post.

Hindrocket would say Bush-hate is blinding us all to the truth about how wonderful Bush is - and then I have no doubt that he would happily bar us all from voting and take our candidates off the ballot sheet. I would love him to tackle exactly how US-imposed debaathification restrictions in Iraqi elections were different, qua "democracy", than what Iran's mullah's did to their own elections. That would be an interesting tangle.

The narrative is succeeding - 57% of Americans want military action against Iran and the U.S. Senate has passed a resolution unanimously condemming Iran. That's despite Iran agreeing to IAEA demands for access to equipment from an old site which will probably fulfil a key condition set by IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei to ease doubts that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. It's also despite El Baradei's opinion that neither the nuclear crisis nor other pressing issues regarding Iran can be resolved through escalation.

Jazz at Running Scared is right - Bush has done a good thing by backing the Russian solution. Now let's see if he can help resolve Iran's misgivings over Russian relability. I'm also going to point out, because I'm a stickler for that kind of thing, the double standards of saying Iran can't have a complete fuel cycle in the same week as Bush ordered a resumption of fuel recycling in the U.S. - something which augments American stocks of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium.

For those following events surrounding Iran's nuclear program I heartily recommend a blog called Nuclear Iran. Amir, the writer, seems to favor El Baradei's solution - have Iran declare a five year ban on enrichment and in return the US will build it's nuke plants and provide it's fuel instead of Russia. It's on my blogroll.

Glenn Greenwald - how the Bush administration has humiliated Congress over Snoopgate. Excellent analysis from an expert.

Newsweek has the tale of the conservative, Bush-appointed Justice Department lawyers who stood up the hardliners who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited powers in the war on terror - and paid the price. (Is it just me or is Eugene Volokh starting to smell the coffee?)

The Boston Globe - Spinning the State of the Union. Look for these themes: mission accomplished in Iraq, stern sabre-rattling on Iran, the need to extend the Patriot Act even though it's not needed if warrantless spying is actually legal, more bad policy ideas that are mainly subsidies to special interests, fear-mongering on immigration, talking up job increases but not mentioning wage drops and more tax cuts to line rich pockets, strip the piggy-bank and drive the deficit even higher.

Talking of special interests...Oil companies on both sides of the Atlantic will gush record profits this week, with America’s Exxon Mobil posting the world’s biggest-ever profit, and Shell setting a new record for British companies. See them complaining about the high price of oil created by Bush's adventures and sabre-rattling?

Fester at Comments From Left Field points out that we knew about US forces kidnapping hostages in Iraq two years ago but it's only now getting to the mainstream media as the Pentagon are forced to release documents. He's pissed.