Friday, November 16, 2007

Instahoglets November 16th 2007

By Cernig

Something for the weekend?

Memeorandum has everything you wanted to read - and probably much that you didn't - on the latest Dem debate. I'm just depressed over how quickly the gossip-columnist aspect of the race has overshadowed a few items of apparently minor importance - Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, China, Russia, Somalia, FISA, torture, the dollar crisis, the mortgage meltdown, homelessness and poverty, climate change etc. etc.

The Guardian writes that the leader of a "concerned citizens" group in Ameriyah, Iraq, acts like a Mafia don, uses beatings and illegal imprisonment to get his way and describes himslef as the "the sword of oppression". The local US commander, Lt. Col. Dale Kueh, confirms to Confederate Yankee that the events described by the Guardian actually happened but says that the Guardian missed the point that this local warlord is working for the U.S. now and ends "I am proud to call him my friend". The Yankee sees nothing at all wrong with this.

Pass the Hat - Fredo needs a legal defense fund. Emptywheel points out that "we the peepul" deserve to know if the President's sugar daddies are paying for a legal firewall to protect the President.

There's legal precedent to say waterboarding is torture - Mississippi Supreme Court, 1926.

America's allies Ethiopia are wandering around Somalia spraying entire neighbourhoods with bullets - and failing to supress the insurgency there by their cruelty. So I guess the neocons who wanted a heavier boot in Iraq were wrong (again) when they said it would work better than "hearts and minds". Who'd a thunk it?

How much longer do we have to put up with the tabloid-esque presidential race coverage? There's real stuff going on out there.

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