BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
DID THE WASHINGTON POST LEAVE JOURNALISM INTENTIONALLY?
DO THEY REALLY THINK THERE IS ANY JOURNALISTIC VALUE IN TRUTH MOLESTER'S GREG SARGENT'S CRAP? OR MENTAL MIDGET EZRA KLEIN?
PARTISAN HACKS WHO CARE ABOUT TRUTH . . . WHILE DISCUSSING THE GOP BUT DON'T GIVE A DAMN OTHERWISE. THE WASHINGTON POST SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF ITSELF FOR WHAT IT'S BECOME AND FOR HOW IT HAS BETRAYED AND BASTARDIZED JOURNALISM.
REACHED FOR COMMENTS, A SPOKESPERSON FOR THE POST RESPONDED, "SO WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? WE DON'T EVEN HAVE NATIONAL CIRCULATION ANYMORE. YOU DO REALIZE THE LOS ANGELES TIMES IN PRINT REACHES MORE HOMES THAN THIS LOUSY PAPER, RIGHT? WE JUST BIDING OUR TIME AND COLLECTING OUR PAYCHECKS, WAITING FOR THE DAY WE'RE ALL WORKING FOR GAWKER! PAGE VIEWS, BABY, NOT JOURNALISM!"
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
In the land of orphans and widows, Al Mada reports,
the poor -- including the widows and the orphans -- labor in the heat
in places such as the brick plant where their faces are saturated with
smoke and they're exposed to harsh conditions, verbal abuse and worse.
Jmria Ali explains that he starts working at six a.m. and continues to
four p.m. with only 30 minutes for lunch. He says he works alongside
children and that he makes 15,000 dinars to the 10,000 the children are
paid. With so many living in poverty, unemployment so high and with
inflation hitting Iraq, there are serious money issues in Iraq. Thus
far, Nouri's refused to share money from the oil surplus -- share that
money with the people and his Cabinet recently insisted there wasn't any
money to share leading Moqtada al-Sadr to politely call that
assertion a lie. Al Mada notes
a meeting of political parties and blocs in Basra yesterday in which
the consensus was that 25% of the proceeds from oil should be going to
the Iraqi people. This proposal would be popular throughout Iraq.
While Nouri clutches tightly to the money, he freely orders people to the knoose. AFP notes
Iraq has executed 5 more people today which, when combined with
Monday's 21, makes for 26 executions so far this week and "at least 96
the number of people executed so far this year." The five today were
not just Iraqi, they were also foreign nationals. Alsumaria reports
1 Syrian and 1 Saudi were among those executed and that there are
approximately 50 crimes which can result in the death penatly in
Iraq. Yesterday, Human Rights Watch's Joe Stork told Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN), "Our main concern is what were these people actually convicted of? Terrorism does not tell us very much." Dar Addustour adds
that there are at least 200 executions still to be carried out. The
news outlet notes that an Iraqiya youth leader is calling for Iraq to
stop the executions at least until the much talked of amnesty bill is
passed into law. The student accused the government of rushing to carry
out executions for sectarian reasons. Al Rafidayn notes that MP Haider Mulla is stating that they will vote on the amnesty last this Monday.
The claims of voting on an amnesty bill have been put forward repeatedly
leading some to doubt that it will happen which is why prisoners in
Mosul began a protest yesterday. Dar Addustour notes
that hunger strike continues, with all prisoners also doing a sit-in
and stating that they will continue it until the amnesty bill becomes an
amnest law -- in addition, the outlet notes that the hunger strike has
now spread to the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad as well and is expected
to spread to other prisons.
Al Rafidayn notes that Brigadier General Nazim Tayeh, with the Interior Ministry, was shot dead in Baghdad as his car passed the airport and they note
that a Kirkuk roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 police officer and
left another injured, a Riyadh bombing killed 3 security forces and
left four more injured and another Kirkuk roadside bombing left two
Peshmerga injured. Bahrain News Agency adds
that Brigadier-General Sardqader survived an attempted assassination in
Kirkuk which left 3 police officers dead and another three injured. AFP notes 1 Sunni sheikh was shot dead in Baghdad.
In addition, Dar Addustour reports
that thieves dressed as police and driving apparent police vehicles
robbed a car of 600 million dinars. In a security addition, Daughters
of Iraq are being brought into the system. Al Shora reports:
"A decision was made to integrate members of the Banat al-Iraq organisation, the women's armed wing of the Sahwa forces that fought al-Qaeda in Diyala, into the local police force," said Amer al-Khuzaie, the Iraqi government's national reconciliation advisor.
"A decision was made to integrate members of the Banat al-Iraq organisation, the women's armed wing of the Sahwa forces that fought al-Qaeda in Diyala, into the local police force," said Amer al-Khuzaie, the Iraqi government's national reconciliation advisor.
Daughters of the Iraq were the female counterparts of the Sons of Iraq or Sahwa, also known as "Awakening." From violence to weapons, All Iraq News reports that the US Embassy in Baghdad announced Monday that they had transferred the last 9 Abrams tanks to the Iraqi government -- making 140 US tanks (worth over $815 million) transferred to Iraq. In related news, AKnews reports that Monday saw NGOs protesting in Erbil to register their opposition to the US government's plan to sell Baghdad F-16s and that the NGO's issued a statement which included:
The US is selling F-16 fighters to the Iraqi government while the majority of the Middle East regimes who used heavy weapons against their peoples are being pressed on to leave power and to get stripped of their heavy weapons. The Iraqi government is not under any external threats from the air or the ground from borders. The purchase of these fighters is not necessary. Each of these planes have been purchased with a huge amoung of money which the Iraqi government could use on providing services to the people and reconstructing the country. The government could buy passenger planes instead of F-16s. Our concern and fear of the Iraqi government's purchase of those planes stems from our experience with the former Iraqi governments that used heavy weapons against their people.
On the political crisis front, Al Mada reports that Ibrahim al-Jaafari has declared that there's an open door for reconciliation between Baghdad and Erbil. At one point, that might have meant something. Maybe not. But the reality is that the Kurds don't trust Ibrahim, didn't trust him in 2005, don't trust him today. And since 2005, they've gotten additional reasons not to trust him. So the idea that he can reach out with an olive branch is rather laughable. After the US government, the Kurds were the biggest objection to Ibrahim getting a second term as prime minister following the 2005 elections. AFP's Prashant Rao re-Tweeted this today:
Hayder al-Khoei
(Would you support 3rd term for PM?) Jafari: Personally I think 2
terms are enough. However, constitution places no limit on number of
terms
And it's those sort of stupid comments by Ibrahim that guarantee no one outside of a small segment of the National Alliance will take him seriously.
For the record, the press went crazy, in early 2011, over Nouri's 'promise' not to seek a third term. They were silent for the most part when Nouri walked that promise back the next day. The promise was made mainly because protests were taking place throughout Iraq and leaders in surrounding countries were at risk of being overthrown. Iraqis weren't pleased that they went to the trouble of holding an election and ended up with the exact same prime minister, the exact same president and the exact same two vice presidents. (A third vice president would be added. At the time of Nouri's promise, there were two.)
For months now, many have attempted to pass a law limiting people to two terms. State of Law has very vocally opposed this; however, many Shi'ite politicians have issued public remarks indicating they supported it. Sunnis and Kurds are opposed to Nouri having a third term. And now Ibrahim issues his stupid remarks today which make him seem out of touch with the bulk of Iraq's political blocs.
Jalal Talabani may have a little bit more credibility than Ibrahim with the Kurds, Jalal is, after all, Kurdish; however, he fled to Germany for a reason and remains there for a reason so maybe not. Dar Addustour reports that Jalal is saying he'll return to Iraq in September and that he's agreed to meet with Osama al-Nujaifi, Speaker of Parliament, when he returns to Iraq. He is also scheduled to meet with KRG President Massoud Barzani and there are rumors of a meet-up with Barzani, al-Nujaifi, Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi and Moqtada al-Sadr.
Karwan Yusuf (AKnews) reports al-Nujaifi and Barzani met today and the two addressed the issue of Nouri al-Maliki and "also discussed the repercussions of the crisis in Syria and the seriousness of it moving into Iraq due to escalating violence in neighboring country."
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