Saddam has been executed

Via Reuters:

U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.

Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place.

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Cliff's Corner

NOTES: My take on Gerald Ford's passing

A great read: DMI's end of the year public policy roundup (see the good, the bad and the Limbaugh)

A great podcast of an interview done by my friend Sean-Paul Kelley at Radio Agonist of my friend Jen Abrahamson about her book Sweet Relief: The Marla Ruzicka Story (and a special bonus if you act now, the book salon I hosted on it at Firedoglake).

The Week That Was 12/29/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Pop quiz folks: Is Joe Lieberman insane (or to put it less delicately...well go here)? Or is he simply the most grotesque, maladjusted, oil-soaked, sociopathic Morlock who really knows the truth about Iraq, but is willing to send more troops to die needlessly when he actually understands how screwed things are?

(Pride, or superbia, is a deadly sin ya know Joe).

See with President Dumbass, I don't have to ask that question. I know his moral catheter Dick is inserting fantasy into The Decider's vacuous noggin while he lays prone slurping SpaghettiOs and navigating the many complexities of "the google" to find the Cartoon Network.

Yet, I was always under the impression that this yapping, little, self-promoting Shitzu (with my apologies to canines everywhere) had a brain, if not a heart. My bad.

You may have seen Holy Joe's piece in The Washington Post today, which argues that we need more troops in Iraq because:

On one side are extremists and terrorists led and sponsored by Iran, on the other moderates and democrats supported by the United States.

Really Joe, it's that simplistic? You mean that Shia and Sunnis who are killing each other and have often done battle for 2,000 years are all on the same side against us? Baathists and whatever Al Qaeda contingent is there, Sunnis all, are taking orders from Shiites in Iran? Are you a complete moron?

C'mon Joe, you can tell us, are you involved in Judith Regan's next book project, "If I FUBARED it?" Do you troll Hannidate late at night with a profile stating, "Has personally turned the entire Middle East into Debbie Schlussel's 2nd night of Hanukah present right after hydrogen peroxide"?

I think Matt Browner Hamlin had the best take today: Shorter Joe Lieberman: Our long national nightmare must go on! Very timely, considering a Republican president whose words this line is based upon just passed away, and it was revealed that he thought this war inane from the beginning (If only what happened in the minds of the Republican Establishment, didn't stay in the minds of the Republican Establishment).

Of course for uttering these anti-Iraq War sentiments even in private and allowing them to be released upon his death, Gerald Ford was attacked by Liebermoron's fellow corrupt moralizer, Bill Bennett. Yup, old cut the deck, jokers are wild, all my money's on red, snake-eyes, Blackjack Bill Bennett and his gargantuan, hairsute corpus questioned whether Ford had "courage" and was "decent" for not making sure that these comments stayed out of the press until Bush & Cheney leave office in disgrace.

In other words, after Bennett has watched more of your kids die for a war I guess he is still enough of an ass to support while sacrificing absolutely nothing for it.

Now, I do think Ford should have had the courage to speak out, but what he did, ie saying something that eventually made its way to the press, was a helluva lot more "decent" than spending your Christianist speaking fees having a room at the Bellagio filled with oxygen so you can pull an all-nighter to get that perfect royal flush while Americans die.

So quite frankly Joe and Bill, suit up or shut up. Read More......

House of Representatives will start dealing with Florida's 13th CD vote controversy on the first day of the session

The dispute of Florida's 13th CD is not over. It will be brought up on the House floor on the first day of the session thanks to Congressman Rush Holt:

A disputed election result in a U.S. House of Representatives race in Florida will be one of the first items raised when the Democratic-controlled House convenes next week, injecting partisan politics into the start of the 110th Congress.

Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who has pushed for better safeguards on electronic voting machines, said on Friday he would make a procedural point to establish the swearing-in of Florida Republican Vern Buchanan does not prejudice ongoing challenges by his Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings.

``This is a district, Sarasota area in Florida, where there's no way of knowing whether the result presented by Florida's secretary of state is valid. In fact, I think there is significant evidence that it is not,'' Holt told reporters.

Why does insuring that votes are accurately counted constitute "injecting partisan politics"? Bush and the GOP hoodwinked the media along those lines in 2000. Somehow, back then, it was wrong to want to count all the votes. No more. Insuring the will of the voters is called democracy, not partisan politics.

Something very wrong happened with the vote in Sarasota County. We know from experince that Florida won't fix it. Congress has to figure it out -- make it right -- and make sure it doesn't happen again. Read More......

106 -- number of US deaths in October and December -- worst months in 2006

While the media is salivating over the impending death of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. death toll continues to mount. December is already tied with October as the deadliest month for US troops this year. 106 Americans have been killed this month according to CNN. That, of course, doesn't negate the deaths that happened in those non-record breaking months.

AP reports that it has been a bad month for Iraqis too:

Already, December was shaping up to be one of the worst months for Iraqi civilian deaths since The Associated Press began keeping track in May 2005.

Through Thursday, at least 2,139 Iraqis have been killed in war-related or sectarian violence, an average rate of about 76 people a day, according to an AP count. That compares to November - the worst month for Iraqi civilian deaths since May 2005 - when at least 2,184 were killed at an average of about 70 a day. In October, AP counted at least 1,216 civilians killed.

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Edwards and leadership

My allegiance to a Democratic presidential candidate is still very much up for grabs. So much could happen in the months before even the first primary votes are cast that I think it's wayyy premature to pick a horse. With that said, I thought Edwards' announcement this week was fairly remarkable.

Part of what he said, in essence, was that he's not interested in waiting to lead, and he doesn't view this as an audition to be a leader, but rather as a kind of trial period of leadership. Compared to Barack Obama's "I have tons of leadership potential" and Hillary's "Who needs leadership when you have infrastructure" impressions, the idea that Edwards would risk immediately calling people to action is both risky and impressive. He's basically saying, I'm going to lead now, and if people follow, great." The monthly action days, the focus on progressive issues, even the metaphor of him literally picking up a shovel and getting to work in New Orleans -- it all points to what could be a very innovative campaign.

There's plenty of time for others to distinguish themselves as well, of course; hopefully they'll all be as interesting. I'd be similarly entertained if Obama announced on Oprah, for example. Would everyone in the audience get Obama-related prizes??

. . . and as I look around for more info on this, I see that Michel Markman has beaten me to essentially the same point. Worth reading. Read More......

Buhbye ice shelf

What? 41 square miles of ice shelf, one of six major shelves left in Canada's arctic, breaks off into the ocean? Collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 155 miles away picked up tremors? No, no; no global warming here, please move on. I said there's nothing to see here! Al Gore is still a lying crazy person, scientists are raving libruls, and hybrid cars are for communists! Why does the Canadian artic hate America?

In reality, though, Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, "traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw." He commented, "It is consistent with climate change."

What a surprise. Read More......

Open thread

It's Friday afternoon . . . coming up on New Year's weekend . . . and everybody is already planning parties/hangovers for the next few days.

Less working, more threading. Read More......

Hussein hanging imminent?

That's what CNN seems to be indicating. Apparently, the US has handed him over to Iraqi authorities.

Reuters is reporting the execution could happen "within hours."

Bush really got him, huh? Course, Bush is bogged down in a war now that has destroyed American credibility, cost us thousands of lives and tens of thousands of injuries. The war to "get" Saddam has destroyed Iraq. Now, Bush is even making Saddam a martyr.

So Saddam will be dead -- and the U.S. is still stuck in the quagmire. Read More......

Senator Johnson continues to improve

Yesterday was Tim Johnson's 60th birthday. The latest reports via AP sound encouraging:

Julianne Fisher, a spokeswoman for the South Dakota Democrat, said Johnson won't be present in the first days of the new Congress next week but is continuing to improve. She said he is responsive to directions from his wife but has not yet spoken.

It's too early to tell how long recovery will take, Fisher said.

In a statement Thursday, Johnson's doctors said he remains in intensive care at George Washington University Hospital. They have released few new details about Johnson's condition and prognosis since the days after the Dec. 13 surgery to stop bleeding in his brain.

Dr. Vivek Deshmukh, head of Johnson's surgical team, said in a statement that the South Dakota senator's overall condition has improved and he is gradually being weaned off sedation to help his brain heal.

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Follow-up on Saddam trial, verdict

Yesterday in a post about the Saddam verdict I referred to the trial as "generally considered fair." Aside from being the kind of lazy passive voice that I always hate to read, it was an inaccurate (or, at the very least, incomplete) statement. Several comments and more than one email pointed out the widespread criticisms of the trial by legal and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, International Bar Association, Amnesty International, and others. Some of these groups are occasionally criticized for having a political agenda, and certainly objections tended to include condemnations of the death penalty, but I have no reason (or legal ability, frankly) to criticize their judgment that the trial was unfair in many ways.

What I should have written, and what I meant to get across, was that the verdict was generally considered fair. This viewpoint is supported by, for example, this article, which quotes experts to that effect:

"Did this meet the standards of international justice?" asked Jonathan Drimmer, who teaches war crimes law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. "The answer is no. But to look at the ultimate verdict, it certainly is consistent with the evidence presented."

Miranda Sissons, a senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice, a group that has been severely critical of some of the trial proceedings, said, "This was not a sham trial," and added, "The judges are doing their best to try this case to an entirely new standard for Iraq."

The trial seems to have been neither a miscarriage of justice nor up to international standards, which has the somewhat bizarre effect of making the trial questionable but the verdict appropriate. The trial was fairly open (most was broadcast on TV and/or radio), conducted in the language of the accused, accessible to the press, and monitored by experts; on the other hand, procedural errors abounded and both the prosecution and the accused hurt the process, including a multitude of procedural problems. For more on this, see here and here.

(Incidentally, my email address isn't on the sidebar, but anyone should feel free to get in touch via ajamericablog (at) gmail.com -- just the usual requests (no lists, no spam, etc), please -- and I'll reply to whatever extent I can.) Read More......

Lieberman wants escalation of Iraq War

Lieberman comes through again for Bush. Joe writes in a Washington Post op-ed that, like Bush and McCain, he wants more troops in Iraq. You can read it if you can stand it. Lieberman has learned from his friend in the White House -- in the first paragraph he invokes September 11th. The whole piece could have been written by the White House. It's the same old rhetoric that means almost nothing. The one thing it does mean is that sanctimonious Joe is more than willing to send more young Americans to die in Bush's quagmire. Read More......

Bush is doing very well in one poll

Top Villain of 2006. Wow. Must be a proud moment for the decider. Crooks & Liars has the details. Read More......

Take a tour of Notre Dame

I decided to break my YouTube boycott and post some video of the Gregorian chant concert last night at Notre Dame in Paris. I'm running out to the door with "Chris in Paris" to Normandy for the New Years weekend, not clear if I'll have Net access there or not, but I'm told Joe and AJ will be tending the blog in our absence.

Anyway, enjoy the snippet, it really was quite wonderful.
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US preparing for Saddam execution - possibly this weekend

Sounds like a scripted plan to fit someone's agenda. Hmmm, but whose agenda? Sounds like installing the kangaroo courts were pretty effective and responsive in Iraq.

As Saddam Hussein's lawyer made a last-ditch effort to impede his execution Thursday, the White House was preparing for the ousted dictator to be hanged as early as this weekend, a senior administration official said. The timetable was based on information that U.S. officials in Baghdad received from the Iraqi government.

I have little sympathy for Saddam but I still struggle with the fact that he is being executed for killing 148 people considering the hundreds of thousands who have been killed since the invasion. I expect people to be accountable when this many people are killed but not with this administration. Read More......

Bush claims he's got "more consultation to do" but he plans a major escalation in Iraq

Maybe if he spent more than three hours working, Bush would come up with something besides an escalation of his unpopular war. But, according to The New York Times, that's his plan and he's sticking with it:

The Bush administration is considering an increase in troop levels in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000, which would be accomplished in part by delaying the departure of two Marine regiments now deployed in Anbar Province, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

The option was among those discussed in Crawford, Tex., on Thursday as President Bush met there with his national security team, and it has emerged as a likely course as he considers a strategy shift in Iraq, the officials said.

Most of the additional troops would probably be employed in and around Baghdad, the officials said.

It's like watching a bad dream. It's his war and he'll do what he wants to -- no matter what it does to the country or what it does to the troops or what it does to the Iraqi President. Clearly, the intervention failed. Read More......