Truly Equal

Good news, but don’t get your hopes up:

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels have agreed to a 60-day ceasefire and a peace summit sponsored by the African Union and the United Nations as steps toward stopping the violence in west Sudan, a visiting U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Sudan has also agreed to let foreign journalists visit Darfur after a two-month ban and to remove a requirement for exit visas for aid workers, one of the biggest bureaucratic obstacles to the world’s largest aid operation in Darfur.

By the way, it isn’t George W. Bush or Condi Rice that gets the credit for this - it is none other than U.S. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson:

Richardson said rebel commanders he had met in Darfur had also agreed to the ceasefire, which would begin on a date to be set by the United Nations and the African Union, which are jointly mediating Darfur peace efforts.

A joint statement by the Sudanese government and Richardson also said Sudan would not use military aircraft painted in white colors, usually reserved for humanitarians, and that Darfur rebel commanders could safely call a conference in the field monitored by the United Nations and the AU.

See, that wasn’t that hard. Just acknowledge the problem, go there and talk about it. Just like we wish had happened in Iraq.

I was browsing the CNN.com website and find myself with the following article, Video apparently showing Hussein wounds emerges. Yes, ANOTHER Saddam Hussein snuff video! Just what the world needs - more violence.

(CNN) — A new video apparently showing Saddam Hussein after his execution with a gaping neck wound and facial bruising is posted on the Internet.

The footage, which appeared Monday, shows the former Iraqi dictator, apparently still wearing the white shirt and black coat he was hanged in, lying on a gurney covered with a white sheet.

The 27-second videotape, posted on www.liveleak.com, shows the camera approaching the gurney and someone pulling back the sheet to reveal the left side of Hussein’s head.

In an accompanying audio track, one man appears to be urging the other to take a quick look and then leave.

Visit the above link and read the exchange, it is beyond shameless. In other words, it seems Saddam’s execution was the hottest ticket of the year in Iraq.

I’m really tired of this Saddam video bullshit. Instead of letting him rot in a jail cell and fall into oblivion, he will now achieve martyrdom status. We have a bonafide war criminal and what do we do? We hang him like if it were a bad Wild West cowboy movie. Just because the prick deserved to die does not mean we have to reduce ourselves to the proverbial medieval mob.

The neocons and insane right-wingers that visit my site on occasion (thanks for visiting by the way!) think that because I wanted Saddam to be tried in a just and fair manner, in accordance to the same international law he broke, makes me a Saddam supporter. This is stupid. This does not make me a “traitor”. Just because I disagree with this madness does not mean I am on the other side. And now, people in the Middle East will look at the horrible way this has been handled and think, these people are not any better: new devil, meet the old devil.

When we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves, we screw it up. Which reminds me, the international community has not reacted favorably to Saddam’s execution:

BBC: Saddam Hanged: Reactions in quotes

Dar Al-Hayat, Lebanon: Saddam’s Death Will ‘Double the Pain’

Arab View, Saudi Arabia: U.S. Double Standards are Fueling Arab Hate

The Age, Australia: New Year, Same Old Bloody Results

Which also reminds me, this is another colossal screw up by Bush. I know I have mentioned this before, but instead of showing the world that we really are better - as in more noble - in demonstrating the power and dignity of the rule of law that fully democratic countries enjoy, we allow the execution of a war criminal to get completely out of control. Or maybe, just maybe, we never really had control over what happens in Iraq in the first place. Not even Prime Minister Maliki wants to control the chaos that is Iraq:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has made clear he dislikes being the country’s leader and would prefer to leave the job before his term ends.

In an extensive interview with a US newspaper, Mr Maliki said he would certainly not be seeking a second term.

A compromise choice, his tenure has been plagued by factional strife within both the country and government, and rumours the US has no faith in him.

“I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term,” he said.

“I didn’t want to take this position,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again.”

You may have heard in Greek mythology of the Midas touch - everything King Midas touched turned to gold. It seems president Bush also has a certain kind of Midas touch - everything he touches seems to turn into shit.

Yeah right, like if I’m going to link to the real video. You can get your “war porn” elsewhere - it was bad when he killed people, and it is bad to derive some sense of happiness from watching him hang. So have some fun instead… it’s Christmas.

I’m glad he’s gone, but actually I would have him alive - yes alive. You know why? Because George Bush the elder, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney (through Halliburton) were waist-deep in shady businesses with him. What do prosecutors do when they get a big fish? Have them squeal the other big fishes. I’m sure Saddam was willing to offer plenty of incriminating documents in order to save his neck…

Update: There is another Saddam Hussein video… just what we need.

This is from Democratic Underground - the list is hilarious and quite comprehensive - and for rounding out a list of the stupid things Bush says to just 50 is deserving of a prize:

50. “I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn’t here.” —at the President’s Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

49. “We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.” —Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

48. “You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” —Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

47. “We both use Colgate toothpaste.” —after a reporter asked what he had in common with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Camp David, Md., Feb. 23, 2001

46. “Tribal sovereignty means that; it’s sovereign. I mean, you’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.” —Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004

45. “I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

44. “I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.” —as quoted in Bob Woodward’s Bush at War

43. “I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport.” —Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

42. “The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.” —Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003

41. “I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. It’s pretty darn strong. I mean, the people see a better future.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2004

40. “Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties.” —discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, as quoted by Robertson

Read the rest of this entry »

I think it was Senator Russ Feingold that mentioned on Meet the Press that the while the U.S. pours billions into Iraq, Somalia receives around 1-2 million dollars a year in foreign aid. You just can’t ignore other crisis in the world while hoping that they go away. Darfur really, REALLY, needs a U.S. intervention:

Almost four years after conflict broke out in Darfur, calls are being made for greater efforts to resolve the predicament in this western region of Sudan.

During an event marking International Human Rights Day Dec. 8, outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reiterated that the world can, and must intensify the drive to address violence in Darfur.

Renewed fighting has been taking place in the region over the past two months, and aid agencies warn that this is causing thousands of civilians to flee into mountainous areas where they are cut off from assistance. Sudan’s government has clashed with a coalition of rebels that failed to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement in May 2006 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja — the National Redemption Front.

Why does the world continue to ignore Darfur? The whole world has plenty of evidence of a genocide in Darfur, yet where are they? In Iraq. Talk about priorities. To put some of this in context, Osama bin Laden was LIVED and OPERATED in Somalia for years before 9/11.

You have got to be kidding me. Isn’t clear that we should get the hell out of Iraq?

More U.S. troops are expected to be deployed in Iraq in the New Year. Despite obvious rethinking, there is no decision on withdrawal of occupation forces.

The presence of troops may be raised just for their own protection. According to a Pentagon report, U.S. and Iraqi forces are facing close to 1,000 attacks a week now. U.S. forces comprise more than 90 percent of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.

According to the White House, 49 countries joined that coalition at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. That number has shrunk to 32, after countries like Italy and Canada withdrew troops this year.

Britain is expected to withdraw its 7,500 troops next year, after pulling out 1,300 earlier this year.

Yeah, that’s the spirit. Lets send in MORE troops and everything will magically be solved! How about addressing some of the real problems?

Sunnis are concerned how far U.S. forces will take that tilt next year. “They (the U.S. military) lifted their checkpoints around Sadr City in Baghdad saying it was ordered by Maliki,” Mahmood said. “Yet, when it comes to our Sunni areas they increased killing of innocent civilians.”

Most of the victims of death squads are Sunnis, whose bodies are found on the streets of Baghdad every day. Many bodies show signs of torture, particularly holes drilled into them, and wounds and deformation caused by acid.

U.S. forces ignore such killings, and carry out their own, in moves to crush Sunni resistance. And they are looking for reinforcements to carry out this job. Since the middle of December, the Bush Administration has been discussing sending an additional 20,000-50,000 troops to Iraq in a “temporary” move. There are currently 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, with at least 5,000 U.S. “advisors”.

Well Dubya, chalk another one to your growing list of “accomplishments”:

- 96 American soldiers killed in December 2006
- 2,983 total U.S. soldiers killed thus far
- over 25,000 U.S. soldiers injured

Heck of a job, ain’t it?

Via Raw Story:

“Security firmly in place, Clinton Fein’s latest exhibition, Torture, scheduled to open at Toomey Tourell Gallery in San Francisco on January 4, 2007, is a shocking and defiant exploration of America’s approach to torture under the Bush administration,” the press release states.

The exhibition consists of “a series of staged and digitally manipulated photographic images” which “recreate infamous torture scenes from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, transforming diffuse, muted and low-resolution images into large-scale, vivid, powerful and frightening reproductions.”

Artist Fein was born in South Africa, and according to his blog, he is “closely identified with his controversial web site, Annoy.com and his notable Supreme Court victory against Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States, challenging the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act in 1997, where Fein’s right to disseminate his art was upheld in a landmark victory for First Amendment rights.”

And just what types of pictures he plans on exhibiting? Here are two of them:

And then you wonder why I think George W. Bush is a war criminal.

May you roast in hell, Augusto Pinochet. And say hi to all of history’s war criminals for me while you are there.

And may you receive a proper sentence, the one you never received on Earth:

Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile’s democratically elected Marxist president in a bloody coup and ruled the nation for 17 years, died today. He was 91. Pinochet had suffered a heart attack a week ago. Chile’s government says at least 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during his rule, but Pinochet escaped hundreds of criminal complaints because of his declining physical and mental health.

Oh, poor him. I surely hope the people of the U.S. learn and don’t let George W. Bush of the hook as well.