CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O'S ATTEMPT TO CONVINCE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT HE IS FOCUSED ON THE ECONOMY TOOK ANOTHER HIT TODAY WHEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED HE WOULD HOLD RALLIES IN FOUR STATES.
"NOT FAIR!" INSISTED BARRY O. "I'M BRINGING THE ECONOMY BACK ONE KEY CHAIN, ONE T-SHIRT AT A TIME! AND PEOPLE LOVE ME! IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! ME! ME! ME! DID I MENTION ME?"
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
File it under "Now that the last crazy has spoken . . ." Caroline Alexander (Bloomberg News) reports that Iraq's should-be-former-prime-minister-because-his-term-expired-months-ago Nouri al-Maliki wants "the U.S. government to intervene to prevent the burning" of the Koran by a church in Florida. He wants the US government to intervene? As noted at length yesterday, political speech is protected speech, protected by the US Constitution. So crazy Nouri doesn't know what the hell he's talking about -- as usual. But grasp that the US puppet refused international calls to do a DAMN THING about the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community. Or about Iraq's Jewish community (which supposedly has 8 members currently). Or about Iraq's Christian community. Or about Iraqi women. Human life doesn't matter to Nouri but printed reproductions (that would be books) require a government ignoring its own laws and killing political speech? The puppet is insane. (At The New Republic, Isaac Chotiner tries to bring some reality to the topic.) Let's grab some more laughs before we address the serious topics of the day. If you do press criticism, it might be a good idea to have your facts right. Alex Pareene has always been trash as he demonstrated with his 2006 attack on Cindy Sheehan. Wait, we have to back this up. Columbia Journalism Review allegedly knows something about press criticism. Allegedly. Liz Cox Barrett, what the hell happened? It's so fashionable to kick Maureen Dowd around that facts no longer matter? Is that it? Liz recommends Alex "see Alex Pareene's solid critique of Dowd's column at Salon." Really? Here's Alex's opening (Salon): "Award-winning New York Times Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a political column about Barack Obama's speech last night! Of course the column had to be finished in time for this morning's paper, so it was obviously written in 10 minutes or so yesterday afternoon, before the speech was actually delivered." Really? Maureen Dowd did a column on Barack's speech? Maureen wrote a column on the remodeled Oval Office. "Not-So-Magic Carpet Ride" is not a column on Barack's speech. As sad as it is that Alex Pareene couldn't tell that, it's even sadder that Liz Cox Barrett and CJR couldn't tell the difference and actually hailed his little slam. Alex is really good, by the way, at slamming women. It's what he lives to do online and people should keep that in mind before promoting his sexism. If Maureen Dowd is as bad as Liz and CJR seem to think, why do they have to lie about what she actually wrote in order to prove her wrong? We won't attempt to explain deadlines to Alex (or Liz), the ship has obviously sailed on that for both of them. And, Liz and CJR, if you're so concerned about who's writing about Barack's Ira War speech, why haven't you highlighted any of the writing? For example, at IPS, Phyllis Bennis explores the realities of Iraq in "What We Didn't Hear from Obama on Iraq" (and link is to her text article but there are also two videos of Bennis analyzing -- on Fox News and the Real News Network -- the situation in Iraq):
But what he left out was more significant. Just on the cost of war, while acknowledging the overall cost, and speaking separately about job loss and the economic crisis in the U.S., he didn't make the crucial link between the two. He didn't say, for instance, that the cost of keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq another year and a half, more than $12 billion, could instead pay for 240,000 new green union jobs back home -- and still have funds left over to begin paying for real reconstruction and reparations in Iraq.
What else didn't we hear? We didn't hear that the 50,000 troops in Iraq now ARE still combat troops -- even if the Pentagon has "re-missioned" them for training and assistance. We heard about the 4th Stryker Brigade leaving Iraq, but not about the 3,000 new combat troops from Fort Hood in Texas, from the Third Armored Cavalry -- combat troops -- who just deployed TO Iraq 10 days ago.
But what he left out was more significant. Just on the cost of war, while acknowledging the overall cost, and speaking separately about job loss and the economic crisis in the U.S., he didn't make the crucial link between the two. He didn't say, for instance, that the cost of keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq another year and a half, more than $12 billion, could instead pay for 240,000 new green union jobs back home -- and still have funds left over to begin paying for real reconstruction and reparations in Iraq.
What else didn't we hear? We didn't hear that the 50,000 troops in Iraq now ARE still combat troops -- even if the Pentagon has "re-missioned" them for training and assistance. We heard about the 4th Stryker Brigade leaving Iraq, but not about the 3,000 new combat troops from Fort Hood in Texas, from the Third Armored Cavalry -- combat troops -- who just deployed TO Iraq 10 days ago.
CJR wants to ridicule Maureen Dowd for her "Iraq speech" column which she didn't write. And guess what? The Kicker, CJR's blog? It never covered the speech either. The hypocrites of CJR -- what would the wacky web be without them?
Today's big story? Liz Sly (Los Angeles Times) reports what "a close ally to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki" is saying -- Minster of Defense Abdul Qader Obeidi has stated that Iraq will require a US military presence (in "some form") "at least until 2016 to provide training, support and maintenance for the vast quantity of military equipment and weaponry that Iraq is buying from America" and that they will require assistance on "intelligence gather" after 2011 as well as help with their air force "at least until 2020." Already some try to pooh-pah the statements and insist they are in keeping with the SOFA -- no, they are not. Meanwhile Robert Dreyfuss (The Nation via NPR) questions US Vice President Joe Biden's "top aide for national security" Tony Blinken:
Since Iraq might, indeed, fall apart, I asked Blinken, are there any conceivable circumstances in which President Obama might renege on the plan to withdraw the remaining 49,000 US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011? What if Iraq falls back into violence and civil war? In response, Blinken called it a "hypothetical" question and he refused to comment. He added that the remaining US forces in Iraq -- two of whom were killed yesterday by a rogue Kurdish soldier -- are "fully prepared to deal with any contingencies that develop." Though both President Obama's own commitment and the terms of the US-Iraq treaty negotiated in 2008 by President Bush call for the removal of all US forces by the end of 2011, Blinken would not say definitively that the troops would leave no matter what. I don't know what Blinken's definition of hypothetical is, but it isn't hypothetical to say that there are no circumstances that could lead Obama to halt the withdrawal or, even worse, to reverse it and add more troops.
Yesterday Iraq's political stalemate hit the six month mark. March 7th, Iraq concluded Parliamentary elections. The Guardian's editorial board notes, "These elections were hailed prematurely by Mr Obama as a success, but everything that has happened since has surely doused that optimism in a cold shower of reality." 163 seats are needed to form the executive government (prime minister and council of ministers). When no single slate wins 163 seats (or possibly higher -- 163 is the number today but the Parliament added seats this election and, in four more years, they may add more which could increase the number of seats needed to form the executive government), power-sharing coalitions must be formed with other slates, parties and/or individual candidates. (Eight Parliament seats were awarded, for example, to minority candidates who represent various religious minorities in Iraq.) Ayad Allawi is the head of Iraqiya which won 91 seats in the Parliament making it the biggest seat holder. Second place went to State Of Law which Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime minister, heads. They won 89 seats. Nouri made a big show of lodging complaints and issuing allegations to distract and delay the certification of the initial results while he formed a power-sharing coalition with third place winner Iraqi National Alliance -- this coalition still does not give them 163 seats. They are claiming they have the right to form the government. In 2005, Iraq took four months and seven days to pick a prime minister. It's six months and one day and where's the government?
Alsumaria TV reports today, "Al Iraqiys List member Aliya Nassif warned of democracy collapse in Iraq if the Constitution and election results are not respected." Hayder Najm (niqash) writes of the latest rumors:
Reports of 'violent verbal arguments' between the Iraqiya bloc leader, Iyad Allawi, and Saleh al-Mutlaq, who heads the National Dialogue Front, have caused many in the Iraqi media to question the bloc's ability to maintain its unity and continuity.
Mutlaq's party is one of the key members of the Iraqiya bloc, holding 22 of the 91 parliamentary seats they won in the March elections. Mutlaq has recently become a target for Nouri al-Maliki, who is seeking to detach him and his party from Iraqiya by offering him a prominent position in a new government headed by the State of Law coalition.
When nothing takes place, when there's no movement or progress on an issue, rumors abound. Qassim Al-kaabi (Asharq Al-Awsat) notes, "Sources inside Al-Iraqiya List, which is led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, have asserted that the media leaks claiming that US Vice President Joe Biden succeeded in persuading Arab and non-Arab countries to stop backing Al-Iraqiya are untrue and baseless and they also called baseless the reports attributed to a leading figure in the State of Law Coalition [SLC], which is led by outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that the latter cited Biden for these remarks and that the countries responded positively apart from Saudi Arabia."
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