Open Thread

8 Comments

1. 

   ben masel on August 1, 2006 at 7:31 pm

   First half hour is Milwaukee Journal/Sentinal’s Washington correspondent craig gilbert discussing the Wiscoonsin Senate race. Then, I’m on with Ben Marens for the 2nd 1/2 hr.

   Recorded 7/31.

   http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/bme/bme060731m.rm

2. 

   Man Eegee on August 1, 2006 at 7:33 pm

   for the Nepal’s Hidden Tragedy topic.  It is slated for this Friday, August 4th.  Here’s a snippet of the UN summary:

   With its recent political turmoil, Nepal, a poverty-stricken landlocked country known largely for tourism and mountaineering, has been once again thrust into the media spotlight as banner headlines and television images focus on the dramatic events in the streets of the capital city, Kathmandu. However, as was the case with previous coverage of the struggle between Maoist rebels against government forces, this explosion of interest has shone little light on a lesser-known problem – the plight of the nation’s children.

   Please let know via a comment in the Group Project Check-In Diary if you are willing to highlight this story.  paz  

   (yes, I already posted this in the World/Open thread, but I want to make sure this gets seen and hopefully responded to…)

3. 

   Sirocco on August 1, 2006 at 7:43 pm

   in the Christian Science Monitor:

   Hizbullah’s attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon

   By Anders Strindberg

   NEW YORK

   As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hizbullah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism.

   Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hizbullah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel’s silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.

   Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored “blue line” on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports. Hizbullah’s military doctrine, articulated in the early 1990s, states that it will fire Katyusha rockets into Israel only in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians or Hizbullah’s leadership; this indeed has been the pattern.

   In the process of its violations, Israel has terrorized the general population, destroyed private property, and killed numerous civilians. This past February, for instance, 15-year-old shepherd Yusuf Rahil was killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon. Israel has assassinated its enemies in the streets of Lebanese cities and continues to occupy Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms area, while refusing to hand over the maps of mine fields that continue to kill and cripple civilians in southern Lebanon more than six years after the war supposedly ended. What peace did Hizbullah shatter?

   Read the whole thing:

   http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0801/p09s02-coop.htm

   ‘Anders Strindberg’ sounds Swedish, but I’m surprised he was allowed to print this even in the Monitor.

4. 

   boran2 on August 1, 2006 at 9:47 pm

   COndolences to Senator Baucus and his family.

   • 

     boran2 on August 1, 2006 at 9:51 pm

     Breaking: shameless self promotion break

     Seen at the link in my sig line is the new subject of the painting diaries, coming soon to a blog near you.  

5. 

   BooMan on August 1, 2006 at 10:25 pm

   wow. this looks curiously similar.

6. 

   GreyHawk on August 1, 2006 at 10:40 pm

   From one of the spots I visit, I came across this bit of news:

   “More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard’s 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday,” the Associated Press reported today.

   Isn’t that just peachy?

   I want my country back.

7. 

   FYMC on August 1, 2006 at 10:56 pm

   I just need to rant, so I understand if you skip over this one.

   A few thoughts:

   >I don’t give a flying shit if I “like” the next president. All of the pundit talk about whether he’s someone you might want to sit down and have a beer with makes me sick. I’ve never really had a problem finding friends that I truly enjoyed having a beer with. So that’s not what I look for in a president.

   I only care if he can DO THE GODDAMN JOB. And for many years to come, that job will be a full-time, emergency repair job on the comprehensive, breathtaking, catastrophic disaster that the…current administration (God, I can even type his #$@%&* name)…has inflicted on the country and indeed the world.

   Shame on the media for lowering the bar to the floor for the current administration of liars, crooks, and incompetents to tip toe over, all the while raising it to the heavens and beyond for Gore.

   >Israel is the tail wagging the U.S. dog; our current policy is an embarrassment, as well as completely wrong and dangerous for Israel, the U.S., and everyone else — of course, especially the Lebanese and Palestinians. Wait…not everyone, it’s actually very good for Islamist extremists and their goals. This dispute is decades old even if you consider just the ‘modern’ post-World War II phase of the conflict, and our leaders act like it just started a couple of weeks ago. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And so wasteful of human life. The current administration is not pro-life. They’re pro-death and pro-war, so long as their chickenhawk asses aren’t getting shot.  

   >I’m not all on fire about the whole Lieberman thing or the rising power of the ‘netroots’ or any of the panting about the Connecticut senate race. But, good God, can anyone really even say out loud that they support the president and his war in Iraq? Really? Lieberman is blinded by his understandable, heartfelt support for Israel. I just hope voters in Connecticut are more interested in supporting the U.S. or, to be honest, peace in this world (not to mention that a change of policy actually would help Israel), and I hope they vote that son of a bitch OUT.

   There. I feel better now.