Guardian: UN Slams Israel's Use of US Cluster Bombs

UN Slams Israel's Use of US Cluster Bombs: "The UN humanitarian chief on Wednesday accused Israel of 'shocking' and 'completely immoral' behavior for dropping large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a cease-fire in its war with Hezbollah was in sight."

Freakonomics blog: Need some foreign aid from the US? Make sure to get your country on the UN Security Council

Need some foreign aid from the US? Make sure to get your country on the UN Security Council: "Seven years ago a Harvard undergrad named Ilyana Kuziemko emailed me asking if I had any summer research positions available. At the time, nobody ever sent me this kind of email, so I hired her and she spent the summer in Chicago doing research with me. It was clear then that she had a very special talent for economics. Consequently, it comes as no suprise that now, as a Ph.D. student at Harvard, she is producing cutting-edge economic research.

With co-author Eric Werker, she has written a paper entitled “How Much is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations.” In this paper, they find that when a country takes over one of the rotating seats on the UN Security Council, U.S. foreign aid jumps by almost 60%. When the country leaves the Security Council, the aid falls back to the old levels. The impact on aid is even larger when there are important international events (like invasions of Iraq) that put the Security Council in the spotlight."

Keith Olbermann Commentary on Rumsfeld

Keith Olbermann's impassioned pespective on Rumsfeld's attacks on dissenters in his speech to the American Legion.

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TNR: ONE QUICK THOUGHT ON DONALD RUMSFELD

ONE QUICK THOUGHT ON DONALD RUMSFELD: "In mid-1967, Robert McNamara recognized the Vietnam war, which he had argued for so vociferously and prosecuted with such zeal, was unwinnable. Yet the war continued. When Lyndon Johnson, the following year, fired him as defense secretary and appointed him to the World Bank presidency, McNamara, feeling the burden of what he had done to the country, cried at his press conference. One looks at Donald Rumsfeld’s spittle-flecked speech calling millions of antiwar Americans traitors and Nazi-appeasers, and thinks: At least Robert McNamara had a sense of shame."

NYT: Where Have All the Protesters Gone?

August 31, 2006
Editorial Observer

There Is Silence in the Streets;
Where Have All the Protesters Gone?
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

Student protesters helped drive Lyndon Johnson — in so many ways a powerful, progressive president — out of office because of his war. In 2004, George W. Bush — in so many ways a weak, regressive president — was re-elected despite his war. And the campuses were silent.

[Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/opinion/31observer.html]

Consider seeing the documentary "The War at Home" for a good depiction of the protests over the Vietnam war, focusing on the anti-war movement in Madison, WI. As I watched it, I couldn't help but wonder why there is so little outrage today, when we are at war not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in a proxy war in Lebanon, but battling for our civil liberties here at home.

NYT: Police Chiefs Want Federal Help in Crime Fight

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 - Mayors and top police officials from around the nation urged the federal government on Wednesday to engage in a more coordinated effort to combat a recent increase in violent crime.

At a meeting here organized by the Police Executive Research Forum, a research and public policy group, the officials said a spike in the rate of violent crime, for aggravated assaults, robberies and murders, reflected a growing crisis.

"Crime is coming back," said Chief William J. Bratton of Los Angeles, who was formerly police commissioner in New York City.

[...]

Mayor Douglas H. Palmer of Trenton, vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors, called for more debate on crime.

"We need a national movement that recognizes that while homeland security is important, hometown security is equally important," Mr. Palmer said. "I'm hopeful that we can come up with a blueprint for making violent crime an issue in the 2008 presidential election. We want to put this on the front burner so that candidates will talk about it with the same focus that they put on terrorism."

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/us/31crime.html

More on George Allen

I can't even figure out how this guy got past Northern Virginians, nor how Bush got elected (much less re-elected), so I am still concerned that this guy could end up contending for the Presidency.

Need for Water Could Double in 50 Years, U.N. Study Finds

"A deepening water crisis would fuel violent conflicts, dry up rivers and increase groundwater pollution, their report says. It would also force the rural poor to clear ever more grasslands and forests to grow food and leave many more people hungry."

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Refuse to be Terrorized

The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act. And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.

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What a Moronic Presidential Press Conference!

Slate analyzes Bush's recent press conference at which Bush stated that critics don't understand the world, then in the same press conference Bush goes on to demonstrate that he doesn't understand Iraq, or Lebanon, or Gaza, or apparently what the word "strategy" means. Just the picture of an exasperated Bush at the conference is worth a click...

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Bush: Iraq Had Nothing To Do With 9/11

President Bush was in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his "freedom agenda" and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. "Nothing," Bush casually answered.

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Bush on Iraq: 'We're Not Leaving So Long As I'm The President' (Video)

At a press conference today, President Bush said, "We're not leaving [Iraq] so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake." His term ends almost two-and-a-half years from now, in January 2009.

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VA Sen. George Allen on Damage Control After Racist Remarks

Fuel is added to the fire of allegations that Va. Senator and presidential hopeful George Allen is racist (or "racially insensitive" as the Washington Post so delicately states it).

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Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision

A coalition re-focuses the gay marriage debate: "Rather than focus on same-sex marriage rights as the only strategy, we believe the LGBT movement should reinforce the idea that marriage should be one of many avenues through which households, families, partners, and kinship relationships can gain access to the support of a caring civil society."

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9/11 Detainee released after 5 years of not being charged with any crime

The date was Sept. 12, 2001, but Benemar "Ben" Benatta was clueless about the death and destruction one day earlier. About a week before, Canadian officials had stopped Benatta as he entered the country from Buffalo to seek political asylum.

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Is it just me?

All the discussion about Lebanese civilians dying because Hezbollah has the nerve to establish themselves in their midst... Why is it taken for granted that Israel has no obligation to conduct its war any differently as a result?

Is Hezbollah well-integrated into the civilian population? By all accounts. But to me, that doesn't mean opponents are free to pummel those civilian areas -- it means, instead, that they must follow the Geneva Conventions and take care not to injure civilians. This means fewer bombs from the air and putting their troops more in harm's way, but they, unlike the Lebanese civilians, chose put themselves at risk for their country. If they hadn't, or don't in the future, perhaps diplomatic efforts could be more successful...