June 18, 2014

Tom Friedman will never ever get tired of telling Iraqis to ‘suck on this’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/16/tom-friedman-will-never-ever-get-tired-of-telling-iraqis-to-suck-on-this/



Tom Friedman will never ever get tired of telling Iraqis to ‘suck on this’
By TBogg
Monday, June 16, 2014 16:39 EDT

Walking TED talk and taxi-driver-chatter-upper Tom Friedman is obviously not a big fan of Iraq. Possibly because it doesn’t seem like a place where Apple would extend their global empire; building factories full of low-wage worker bees churning out iToothbrushes or whatever the hell they are going to iMake next in an effort to suck every last dollar out of every last wallet before Steve Jobs returns to Earth to take them all to iHeaven.

~snip~

Back in 2003 he explained that there was this bubble, you see. And it was kind of like the tech bubble, but not quite. It was a terrorism bubble and, instead of being full of pet.com or webvan.com or hotnakedphyllisschlafly.com, it was full of swarthy people with box cutters who hated our freedom and our open society and our innate God-given goodness.
Also, probably our Apple products.

~snip~

Either way, to Tom Friedman it didn’t matter because, as Tom Friedman so eloquently put it in Aspen Institute terms, this ‘bubble thing’ had to be dealt with:

….there was only one way to do it because part of that bubble said ‘we’ve got you’ this bubble is actually going to level the balance of power between us and you because we don’t care about life, we’re ready to sacrifice and all you care about is your stock options and your hummers. And what they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house from Basra to Baghdad uhm, and basically saying ‘which part of this sentence don’t you understand?’. You don’t think we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy we’re going to just let it go, well suck on this. Okay. That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. We could have hit Pakistan, We hit Iraq, because we could. And that’s the real truth. “

June 18, 2014

Who are Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and What did we Do to them?

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/iraqs-sunni-arabs.html

Who are Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and What did we Do to them?
By Juan Cole | Jun. 18, 2014

The two great branches of Islam coexist in Iraq across linguistic and ethnic groups. There are Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, Sunni Kurds and (a tiny minority of) Shiite Kurds. Arabs are a linguistic group, speaking a Semitic language. Kurds speak and Indo-European language related to English.

Sunnism and Shiism as we know them have evolved over nearly a millennium and a half. But the difference between them begins after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD (CE) in the city-state of Mecca in western Arabia. Muhammad, the son of Abdallah, had derived from the noble Quraysh clan. Those who became the Shiites insisted he should be succeeded by Ali, his cousin and son-in-law (and the next best thing to a living son). This dynastic principle was rejected by the group that became the Sunnis. They turned for leadership to prominent notables of the Quraysh, whom they saw as caliphs or vicars of the Prophet. The first three caliphs had given their daughters in marriage to the Prophet and so were his in-laws, but Sunni principles said that they needn’t have been– any prominent, pious male of the Quraysh would have done.

There is a vague analogy to the split between Catholicism and Protestantism, on the difference between seeing Peter as the foundation of the Church and of seeing Paul as that.

Iraq was part of the medieval caliphates– the Orthodox Caliphs, then the Umayyad Arab kingdom, and then the Abbasids. In 1258 the invading Mongols (themselves Buddhists and animists) sacked Baghdad and executed the last caliph. It is said that they were warned that it was very bad luck to shed the blood of a caliph, so they rolled him up in a Persian rug and beat him to death with hammers.

June 18, 2014

Torturing for the Nation

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/torturing-for-nation.html

Torturing for the Nation
By contributors | Jun. 18, 2014
By Ariel Dorfman via Tomdispatch.com

According to an Amnesty International Poll released in May, 45% of Americans believe that torture is “sometimes necessary and acceptable” in order to “gain information that may protect the public.” Twenty-nine percent of Britons “strongly or somewhat agreed” that torture was justified when asked the same question.

For someone like me, who has been haunted by the daily existence of torture since the September 11, 1973 coup that overthrew Chilean President Salvador Allende, such percentages couldn’t be more depressing, but perhaps not that surprising. I now live, after all, in the America where Dick Cheney, instead of being indicted as a war criminal, sneeringly (and falsely) claims to anyone who asks him — and he is trotted out over and over again as the resident expert on the subject — that “enhanced interrogations” have been and still are absolutely necessary to keep Americans safe.

As for those Americans and Britons — and so many others around the world — who find such horrors justifiable, I wonder if they have ever met a victim of torture? Or do they think this endless pain is only inflicted on remote and dangerous people caught up in unfathomable wars and savage conflicts? If so, they should think again.

~snip~

How would our friend Eric, who died in 2012, react to the news that so many Americans and so many of the very countrymen he served in the war now declare torture to be tolerable? Perhaps he would whisper to them the words he wrote to Nagase when he forgave his enemy: “Sometime the hatred has to stop.”

June 18, 2014

Neocons promised Iraq would be Model of Democracy, Left US Holding the Bag

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/neocons-promised-democracy.html

Neocons promised Iraq would be Model of Democracy, Left US Holding the Bag
By contributors | Jun. 18, 2014
By Adam Quinn, University of Birmingham

Dorothy Parker famously reacted to the ringing of the telephone with the phrase, “What fresh Hell is this?” Occupants of the White House could be forgiven for having adopted the same practice when it comes to Iraq, to say nothing of its broader neighbourhood.

Since 2003 (and, really, for years before that) Iraq has become, with only the most fleeting exceptions, a source of nothing but the most exquisitely awful sort of news. But even by its own standards, the events of the past 72 hours have surely exceeded the expectations of even connoisseurs of tactical disaster.



~snip~

Is it all Obama’s fault?

Hanging over all this is the question of the United States’ role. After somewhere north of $2 trillion dollars spent and thousands of American lives sacrificed (to say nothing of Iraqi ones), can this harvest of ashes really be the sum total of what has been achieved? And wasn’t the worst case scenario of a fractured Iraq torn, wracked by extreme sectarian violence, supposed to have been averted by the surge of American troops in 2007 and the counterinsurgency strategy that went with it?



$2 trillion later …

~snip~

It was argued that by overthrowing tyranny, and replacing it with a liberal democratic state where Sunni, Shia and Kurd lived side by side in peace and prosperity, the United States would be facilitating the birth of a new a new role model for the Muslim world. They would be draining the swamp of disillusion, economic decline and extreme religiosity that had given rise to radical Islamist militancy. It seems remarkable now that this scenario could have been sincerely proposed by so many serious people.

June 18, 2014

More ocean off Massachusetts open for wind energy

http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140617/NEWS/140616551/1994/NEWS

More ocean off Massachusetts open for wind energy

BOSTON— Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell say a large area off the coast is being opened for commercial wind energy leases.

The officials say the proposed area is more than 742,000 acres, or more than 1,160 square miles. That's larger than the area of Rhode Island and will nearly double the federal offshore acreage available for commercial-scale wind energy projects.

The area is about 12 miles offshore, south of Martha's Vineyard, and will be auctioned as four leases.

So far the government has awarded five commercial wind energy leases off the Atlantic Coast, including Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts and an area off Delaware. Two competitive leases also have been awarded in the Massachusetts-Rhode Island area and Virginia.

June 18, 2014

Three Troubling Lessons from the Latest U.S. Drone Strikes

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/17-6



A Pakistani child sifts through rubble following a U.S. drone strike.

Three Troubling Lessons from the Latest U.S. Drone Strikes
by John Knefel
Published on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 by Rolling Stone

As the deteriorating security situation in Iraq once again dominates headlines in the U.S., America's dirty wars in the Middle East and South Asia continue with no sign of abating. Last week, the United States carried out one drone strike in Yemen and two in Pakistan, killing an estimated total of between 15 and 22 people, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an organization that tracks drone strikes closely. All of the dead were reported to be militants; human rights advocates note, however, that such claims are often discovered to be inaccurate or misleading following further investigation.

~snip~

1. The U.S. may be targeting enemies of foreign governments, not imminent threats to the U.S.

The two strikes in Pakistan came after the breakdown of peace talks between the Pakistani government and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which ended after a brutal attack carried out by Uzbekistan militants in coordination with the TTP on the Karachi airport, resulting in 36 deaths. Pakistan is now waging a major offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, aimed at dislodging militant groups there.

~snip~

2. This may be what the near-term future of U.S. military force looks like.

As the U.S. watches sectarian conflict expand in Iraq and Syria, pressure for the Obama administration to intervene somehow is likely to grow. ISIS, the group behind the recent turmoil in Iraq, is arguably a greater threat to the U.S. than local enemies in Yemen or Pakistan; Secretary of State John Kerry has said the administration is open to considering drone strikes in Iraq, and the U.S. has secretly been flying a small number of surveillance drones over the country for the last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

~snip~

3. We still have a long way to go on transparency.

The U.S. drone programs that currently exist are shrouded in secrecy, as would almost certainly be the case with any future programs. Human rights attorney and professor Sarah Knuckey recently referred to a "depressing pattern" of how drone strikes are discussed in the media – from initial media reports, to investigations and calls for transparency, to official denials and anonymous defenses from the U.S. government.

June 18, 2014

The United States' Tragic Role in Iraq

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/17-0



The United States' Tragic Role in Iraq
by Stephen Zunes
Published on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 by The Progressive

The dramatic rise of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—which even al-Qaeda deemed too extreme to remain part of its network—is a tragedy by any measure. It would also be tragic if we allowed the very forces that created this mess to explain it away.

Despite claims by the Bush administration and its supporters to the contrary, outside of a few dozen fighters in a remote valley of the Kurdish autonomous region, there was no Al-Qaeda or related Salafi extremist presence in Iraq under the Saddam Hussein regime. But now, thanks to the U.S. invasion and occupation, the extremists control most of the northern and western parts of the country, including Iraq’s second largest city.

~snip~

It is ironic that many of the very U.S. politicians and pundits who supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq are now being paraded through the mainstream media giving advice on how the Obama administration should respond, ignoring how the rise of ISIS and the underlying “sectarian” conflict is a direct consequence of Bush administration policies.

It is particularly bizarre that some of the very people who supported the illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq are now trying to somehow blame Obama for the unfolding fiasco. Obama opposed the war in part because he recognized that a U.S. invasion and occupation would "only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida."

June 18, 2014

German beermakers may be winning their battle to stop fracking

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/17/german-beermakers-may-be-winning-their-battle-to-stop-fracking/



ExxonMobil test drilling makes brewers fear for their livelihoods, but others see fracking as alternative to coal and nuclear energy

German beermakers may be winning their battle to stop fracking
By Philip Oltermann, The Guardian
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 19:11 EDT

“Germany is a beer nation: if their beer has no flavour, people will mount the barricades”, says Friederike Borchert. At her family’s brewery in Lünne in Lower Saxony about 800,000 litres of beer are produced a year: one light pilsner, one dark beer and a buckwheat brew. Borchert, 27, dreams of one day making her own India pale ale, though now fears she may have to put her aspirations on hold.

In spring 2011, US energy group ExxonMobil made a horizontal test drill into shale rock under a field down the road, so far the only one of its kind in Germany.

Many locals are now convinced that Lünne has been earmarked as the country’s first site for fracking, the controversial method of extracting gas by injecting water, sand and chemicals into the rock at high pressure. Earlier this month, a leaked letter by the economy minister Sigmar Gabriel hinted at permitting fracking from 2015, apparently confirming their suspicions.

“For brewers”, says Borchert, “fracking could spell the end of our existence”. Brewing water had to be “even cleaner drinking water”. The fear alone that chemicals used during fracking might enter the local ground water could ruin the brewery’s reputation. But then Germany is a beer nation, she says, and when brewers speak up politicians tend to listen.

June 18, 2014

Bill Moyers Essay: Wall Street’s Secret Weapon: Congress

http://billmoyers.com/2014/06/16/bill-moyers-essay-wall-street%E2%80%99s-secret-weapon-congress/

Bill Moyers Essay: Wall Street’s Secret Weapon: Congress
June 16, 2014

Why haven’t any big bankers been prosecuted for their role in the housing crisis that led to the Great Recession?

These finance executives took part in “scandals that violate the most basic ethical norms,” as the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde put it last month, including illegal foreclosures, money laundering and the fixing of interest rate benchmarks. In fact, banking CEOs not only avoided prosecution but got average pay rises of 10 percent last year, taking home, on average, $13 million in compensation.

These “gentlemen” are among the leaders of the industry’s efforts to repeal, or water down, some of the tougher rules and regulations enacted in the Dodd-Frank legislation that was passed to prevent another crash. As usual, they’re swelling their ranks with the very people who helped to write that bill. More than two dozen federal officials have pushed through the revolving door to the private sector they once sought to regulate.

And then there are the lapdogs in Congress willfully collaborating with the financial industry. As the Center for Public Integrity put it recently, they are “Wall Street’s secret weapon,” a handful of representatives at the beck and call of the banks, eager to do their bidding. Jeb Hensarling is their head honcho. The Republican from Texas chairs the House Financial Services Committee, which functions for Wall Street like one of those no-tell motels with the neon sign. Hensarling makes no bones as to where his loyalties lie. “Occasionally we have been accused of trying to undermine aspects of Dodd-Frank,” he said recently, adding, with a chuckle, “I hope we’re guilty of it.” Guilty as charged, Congressman. And it tells us all we need to know about our bought and paid for government that you think it’s funny.

June 18, 2014

The homeless people’s handwritten signs that are being turned into fonts

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/17/the-homeless-peoples-handwritten-signs-that-are-being-turned-into-fonts/



A new charity project in Barcelona takes signs made by the city’s rough sleepers and turns their handwriting into a downloadable font

The homeless people’s handwritten signs that are being turned into fonts
By Jon Henley, The Guardian
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 18:33 EDT

Writing the cardboard sign you use to beg, says Guillermo, one of Barcelona’s estimated 3,000 homeless people, is just “really shitty. You’re hardly going to convey love. You can’t convey anything nice. What you’re conveying through the cardboard, through your writing, is something that’s really … screwing you.”

But the handwriting of some of the Catalan capital’s rough sleepers is now being put to a wider use than helping its individual authors survive: scanned and converted into downloadable fonts, it is being sold online to raise funds for a foundation that supports homeless people in their effort to leave the street behind.

Homelessfonts.org, a joint venture between the Arrels Foundation, which works with nearly half of Barcelona’s homeless population, and advertising agency The Cyranos McCann, hopes individuals and companies will buy the fonts and use them to communicate on social media or as part of their corporate identity on stationery and packaging.

Using the typefaces homeless people themselves use to call attention to themselves in the street – from rough, energetic and sometimes barely legible scrawls to sometimes beautifully executed near-calligraphy – is “a creative way to raise awareness and transform the popular view of the homelessness issue,” says Ferran Busquets, the foundation’s director.

--

http://www.homelessfonts.org/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124737378@N03/

--

Great idea!