Quickies

Above photo from NY Times. A Lebonese girl is consoled after her house was bombed and family members were killed. We see now how the effects of the Bush policies are playing out in the Mideast. According to the Guardian (link above), the US is giving Israel a week before beginning diplomatic work. Maybe this will get Bush into action faster, thought I doubt it. Condi may get in a snit about it, but whether or not the administration's policies have failed and possibly contributed to this latest violence involving Israel is worthy of discussion.

One hundred Iraqis are dying daily.

Speaking of failed Middle Eastern policies, it appears as if Turkey may attack the Kurds. Seeing as Iran isn't too fond of them either, this could escalate into something far worse. Will the U.S. stay out of it? Will the new Iraqi government be outraged? Will this provide the excuse needed for attacking Iran? Stay tuned.

Iraq's leader takes a stand....against the Israeli bombing.

In the U.S., the rise of paramilitary police raids. Snip:

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

In lighter news: the new British pub laws have not incited violent crimes.

Brigitte Bardot may bid France farewell.

A government accounting office found waste amongst the transactions of government credit card holders at the Department of Fatherland Security. No shock that plasma TVs, doggie booties, thousands of iPods, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computers were amongst the wasteful items purchased. We've come to expect these stories, after all, and why should the numbnuts at Fatherland Security be any different? What was shocking was that the accounting office found a home brewing kit purchased by the Coast Guard was wasteful. Damn you, it was for beer!