LIVE IN ALBANY
POLITICS IN IRAQ
DEBATING ABRAMOFF IN SOUTH AFRICA

POLL OF THE DAY:

Bush Ratings At All-Time Low The CBS News Poll Finds Bush’s Approval Rating Has Fallen To An All-Time Low Of 34 Percent
http://tinyurl.com/m2jh4

Insight Magazine: HUNTER-IN CHIEF TO RETIRE

”Cheney seen retiring after midterm elections Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to retire within a year. Senior GOP sources envision the retirement of Mr. Cheney in 2007, months after the congressional elections. The sources said Mr. Cheney would be persuaded to step down as he becomes an increasing political liability to President Bush. The sources reported a growing rift between the president and vice president as well as their staffs.”

TRAINING

I am writing tonight on Amtrak train 239 heading up the Hudson Valley to the capital of the Empire State—how appropriate—Albany New York. There I will be speaking about media issues to high school students in the studios of WAMC, a NPR outlet that does lots of community service.

I have a beautiful view of a traffic clog on the West Side Highway as the armada of automobiles go north towards the George Washington Bridge I am glad I decided not to drive through the rush hour. New Jersey looks imposing, even magical, out the window.

The mighty Hudson river on my left was a gateway to the new world, a portal for exploration, trade and later colonization. It is named after the Dutchman Hendrik Hudson who represented an empire that went east to the East Indies leaving this beautiful valley for the French and English and Indians to fight over. In the aftermath of the revolutionary war, some of the big Estate owners who sided with the British were tarred and feathered and forced to flee to Canada. Class consciousness/warfare was intense in those days.

The first stop on this express is Croton on Hudson where the writer John Reed once lived as you will remember from the film Reds. My folks lived there too, My late mom, a poet, edited the Croton Review for the local arts counsel. My pal, the Croatian-American musician Nenad Bach has a home there now and is thinking of returning back to the Dalmatian cost because of all the taxes that eat into his artists income.

The train is packed. Jammed. And no coffee, no nothing. I am told that the search for affordable housing now leads some people to commute 5 hours a day from the city upstate and back again. Every day. I could never do it.

Its been an uneventful day or maybe not. My doctor called with the results of my recent tests. Some of my levels are elevated but his call surely contributed to the problem. So add a new test to the list of stuff on my plate. I won’t bore you with it all but, trapped as I am next to a sleeping passenger, I can reflect on how busy everyone is, and why families with with many members working at more than one job don’t have much time to inform themselves about what’s really on outside their worlds.

How do we get them to care about what’s happening in Iraq and to its people?

DEATH TOLL

For years now, the civilian death toll of the US war in Iraq has been downplayed, if reported at all. But now that Iraqis are killing each other, its page one in the Washington Post this morning: Their reporters have finally found the morgue.

”Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week’s bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad’s main morgue.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701128.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

The Progress Center reports:

” As violence escalates across Iraq, the Bush administration has continued to ignore ideas for a practical alternative approach to resolving the conflict.”

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/32872/

THE POLITICS OF IRAQ

We usually only hear about the military battle in Iraq .But what about the politics? By chance I happened on this “old news” compiled by the Global Beat news analysts.

Global Beat: 13-29 December 2005: Iraq Vote Sinks Another U.S. ‘Best-Case’ Scenario

”U.S. officials made no secret, in the months preceding Iraq’s latest election, that their withdrawal strategy was premised – in the first instance – on a regime change: the replacement of the current, strongly pro-Iran government dominated by the Shiite religious parties by a more secular, moderate, U.S.-friendly administration that would make compromises to draw in Iraq’s alienated Sunnis who make up the social base of the insurgency.

“The hope was that Iraqi voters would blame the poor security and economic situation on the incumbents, and turn to more secular alternatives such as the first prime minister picked by the U.S., Iyad Allawi, or even former Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi. At the very least, it was hoped that the power of the alliance led by the two main Shiite religious parties would lose its parliamentary majority, and be forced both to choose more moderate leaders from within its ranks, and to accept a part in a more secular coalition. Preliminary results released by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, however, have poured cold water on those scenarios.“

This forces us to recognize that the great genius guiding Iraq policy got the poilitricks as wrong as the military-security situation. Sometimes when we look back, we can see the future more clearly.

http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/index.html#iraq

SADDAM ENDS HUNGER STRIKE

”Saddam and seven others are on trial for killings in 1982. Saddam Hussein has ended an 11-day hunger strike for “health reasons”, his chief lawyer has said. Khalil al-Dulaimi said his client had lost 4-5kg (9-11lbs), but that his morale was high.”

As it happens I watched Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney General who is on Saddam’s Defense team explain what a farce the trial is. I know Mr. Hussein was never known for fairly trying the people he killed and tortured but this trial was supposed to show how different western justice is. What a joke! Also fascinating that Clark has so rarely been on the air discussing his experience–or being confronted about it.

SCOTT RITTER TESTIFIES

It is a lack of faith in the courts that leads the former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter to testify before citizen tribunals. Ritter explains his reason in his testimony:

“In 1946, the Nuremburg Tribunal rejected the German defense of pre-emption when it came to the invasion of Denmark and Norway in 1940. The Germans had cited the imminent occupation of these two nations by the armed forces of France and Great Britain, which would have threatened the German northern front, as just cause. This defense was rebuked by the tribunal, led by US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who instead identified the German action as constituting a “war of aggression.” Judge Jackson went on to say that “To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

“Judge Jackson’s words, and my steadfast allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, motivated me to give testimony this past Saturday at the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, in particular in support of the first count put forward by the commission: that the Bush administration authorized a war of aggression against Iraq.

“I’m not a big fan of un-mandated tribunals, but given the absolute lack of attention on the part of Congress regarding the decision to invade Iraq (a lethargy encouraged somewhat by Congress’ own culpability in abrogating its responsibilities under the Constitution when it comes to war powers and holding the Executive Branch in check), I felt that my participation in the Commission’s work would help create a record that might someday in the future motivate the representatives of the American people who occupy the Legislative Branch of government to carry work that not only serves the interests of their respective constituencies, but also defends both the letter and intent of the Constitution they are sworn to uphold and defend. America should not be looking to any international commission or tribunal to hold President Bush and his administration to account; that is the job of the American people.

BBC REPORTS EUROPE IS SENDING AID TO PALESTIIANS

”The EU approves 120m euros in aid to the Palestinians, in a bid to save the current government from collapse.”