Instahoglets 16th Jun 06

A third of these things in one week? Either the world or I have gotten very busy. I think it's the world.

The UK's Guardian newspaper, in a great bit of investigative journalism, casts serious doubts over the Israeli Army's version of events on the Gaza beach recently - in particular, every independent indication is that the IDF have stretched the time frame to get themselves out of the...well..frame.

I asked the other day why no-one in the press was asking what effect on the rest of the country moving 75,000 security troops to Baghdad would have. Since no-one in the press seemed interested I asked blogger Fester. As usual Fes stepped up with an excellent analysis. Simply, he says that it is more theatre than real crackdown as 75,000 troops still aren't enough to make a dent on a city of over 6 million (they would need 450,000 troops to duplicate the Tal Afar success) and in any case, Sunni Army and Shia Interior Ministry goons are sticking to their own sectarian areas - each operating a Sergeant Schultz policy - while the US keeps Army and Interior squads seperate so that they don't shoot at each other. Oh, and he also predicts that, just like the last crackdown that failed to break the back of the insurgency, things will quieten a little before flaring up again.

Joe Gandelman, the Moderate Voice, on the current theatre, supposedly a debate about Iraq policy, being enacted in Congress:

Republicans who are cheering on Republican leaders in this battle in Congress know that it's to box the Democrats in a corner. Democrats know it, too, so they're trying to go on the offensive/defensive.

So everyone knows it's a political skirmish. What's lost in the process? Not only a "full and honest" debate on the wear but a "full and honest" assessment about where the U.S. is, how it can be in a better position, what specific steps can be taken to help American troops be more effective and safer, and what the U.S. long-term strategy will be. And many others — if the idea is problem SOLVING.

I would add that when the Pentagon joins in political theatre like this by giving Republicans and Dem hawks a list of talking points on Iraq it makes a mockery of the hawk's attacks on dissident Generals who spoke out - but it also means any chance of obtaining that full and honest assessment has disappeared.

Greg Palast has a post up about a BBC investigation he participated in. Basically, the GOP used a scam to deprive black servicemen who were stationed in Iraq at the time of their votes in the 2004 elections. Read it and weep for your nation.

Yet more corruption involving a Republican and a defense contractor. This time it is Tom Cole (R-Ok), his staffer and General Atomics, maker of the Predator unmanned aircraft. Anything They Say has the sordid details.

Hey, guess what other dent was put in your freedoms this week? Now the CIA gets to decide what is and isn't a news outlet, at least as far as fee wavers for FOIA requests are concerned. It's not as big a deal as some others this week such as the No Knock ruling, but you know what mission creep can be like when it is a deliberate policy.

According to national Review, somewhere out there is a video which will simply drive the bigoted Malkinite right utterly bugshit with fury. It shows Dubya, who they already believe is a traitor to America over his immigration plans, waving a Mexican flag and:

The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an image of him fishing on his property near Crawford, Texas, as he essentially described millions of Americans who populate his home state as the true foreigners in someone else's native land.

"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the American West was northern Mexico," Bush says in the video. "The people who lived there weren't called Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens, until all that land became part of the United States.

"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners in their own land," Bush adds.

The video, which cost $5 million, was intended to woo latino voters and was made during the 2000 campaign.

Interesting gifts Dubya and his crew get. The Guardian recounts gifts sent to Bush (a braided leather whip, a $10,000 sniper rifle, six jars of fertiliser and a copy of the "Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook"), Rummie (aromatherapy scents and a gold bracelet) and Cheney (a "Happy Day" clock, gold silk pillows, scented candles and a pottery incense burner) by various foreign governments. Anyone think the whip was really a present for Mistress Condi?