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My uncle, a retired diplomat, sends a link to this CNN.com report: “Uncle Sam drafts diplomats for embassy in Iraq”.

The US embassy in Baghdad is the nation’s largest, and the State Department is having trouble staffing it. Of course, this human resource issue has nothing to do with the size of the work force or the lack of qualified personnel, and everything to do with the security situation in the war torn country.

So to rectify the problem, the State Department has announced that it will draft current employees, forcing them to serve in the Central Asian hellhole that the US has created. Anyone who refuses will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Incidentally, State has instituted this policy twice before. In 1969, an entire class of entry-level diplomats was forced to serve during another US imperial quagmire, this one in a country called Vietnam. The second was when the US was destabilizing the newly independent nations of West Africa during the 1970s and 80s.

This should remind us all of the sacrifices that US military personnel are suffering with multiple extended tours of duty in Iraq. But, at least our soldiers can shoot back if fired upon. Diplomats are not permitted to carry weapons. They can only travel around Iraq with heavily armed security teams manned by lawless mercenaries from companies like Blackwater USA.

Working in a duty station like Iraq is a diplomat’s nightmare. Why would anyone in their right mind want to be in that situation? It will be interesting to see how many career diplomats will give up their pensions and their jobs because of this policy.

Nadir’s Note:  I’m the “young artist” Shea Howell refers to in this editorial from The Michigan Citizen.“

By Shea Howell
Special to The Michigan Ctiizen

I first met Congressmen John Conyers in the early 1970s at a convention of the National Committee to End Racism and Political Repression. Representative Conyers welcomed Angela Davis, recently acquitted of murder charges, to Detroit. He praised her courage and brilliance in the struggle for liberation.

Since that long ago day, I have always been proud to have John Conyers as my Congressman. I knew he could be counted on to be on the right side of any issue. Until now.

Last Saturday Representative Conyers decided to attend the Gathering for Justice, City of Hope event at Youthville. He walked into the room quietly just as a young local artist was announcing Change the Music: "an art festival and political forum for local organizers working to keep pressure on Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable for its crimes.” As the young artist spoke passionately about the importance of pressuring Congressmen Conyers to impeach Bush, Conyers entered and took a seat directly across from him. Continue reading

Once again, provocative and opinionated Detroit activist, Imhotep Bakara, begins an interesting debate. He forwarded this link to an article in the Detroit News called, “Many Metro blacks feel isolated in suburbs”.
He prefaced the link with this message:

It’s real interesting that the Det. News did this story. It’s seems to me they are saying “our plan is working”! It seems to me that some Blk people love to be confused about their place in Amerikkka!

I only can say, this brother aint going across 8 mile!
If i got to leave, it’s going to be to another “black city”.

Since we moved to Michigan in 1999, my wife and I have lived in suburban Wayne County – Westland to be exact. A lower cost of living and a quieter neighborhood that is more similar to the area we left in Nashville brought us here instead of within the Detroit city limits. Continue reading

Habeas Corpus, the legal action that gives a person the right to challenge an unlawful detention, is no more. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 revoked this right that has been a cornerstone of Western democracies since the 12th Century.

The Democratic-led US Senate again failed to pass a measure that would return this fundamental right to US citizens.

Said US Presidential candidate Senator Chris Dodd, “Each of us in the Senate faced a decision either to cast a vote in favor of helping to restore America’s reputation in the world, or to help dig deeper the hole of utter disrespect for the rule of law that the Bush Administration has created. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues chose the latter.”

Yahoo News/The Nation

Batten down the hatches, folks. It’s about to get even crazier up in here…

This from The Raw Story:

Fox News asked former CIA field officer Bob Baer on Tuesday whether the US is “gearing up for a military strike on Iran.” Baer has written a column for Time indicating that Washington officials expect an attack within the next six months.“I’ve taken an informal poll inside the government,” Baer told Fox. “The feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” His Time column also suggested that “as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

The war drums have been beating for an attack on Iran for years now. It probably would have happened a lot sooner if the nation’s misadventure in Iraq had worked more in the NeoCon’s favor. Even if Baer’s six month time line is ambitious, odds are Bush will make the strike well before the November 2008 elections. Continue reading

We’ve been had. Hoodwinked. Pimped and Played.

Eight months have come and gone since We, the people of the United States, elected a Democratic majority to both houses of the U.S. Congress. Our hope was that they would end the occupation of Iraq, bring our troops home, deliver the Bush/Cheney/NeoCon cartel to justice and reverse the dangerous tailspin that we have endured since the first non-election of George W. Bush.

What have the Democrats given us in return?

• Continued funding for the imperial mission in Iraq, despite a clear mandate from the American people to end this thing.
• An overdue and largely superficial increase to the federal minimum wage that means even less as the weak U.S. dollar struggles on global currency markets. (We know this wage increase isn’t enough because there are already rumors that another hike is in the works.)
• A newly passed, bi-partisan, domestic surveillance law that grants the government more latitude when spying on the legal actions of U.S. citizens.
• The Bush Administration’s extended middle finger in the face of Congressional subpoenas over the U.S. attorney scandal.

So what gives? Why are the Democrats still the punks they were before they held power in Congress? Continue reading

So is Bush for the Kurds or against them?

From The Raw Story:

A former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney is briefing lawmakers on Pentagon plans for secret military intervention in Turkey, Robert Novak reported Monday.The Bush administration is considering covert military activity by U.S. Special Forces to help Turkish troops quash Kurdish guerilla fighters, who are believed to be using northern Iraq as safe-haven, according to the syndicated columnist.

Undersecretary of Defense Eric S. Edelman, a former Cheney aide, briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week on the plans. The plans call for secret U.S. involvement to assist Turkish action against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

US support for Iraqi Kurdistan has riled the Turks for years now. The Turks have been threatening to stage cross-border raids into Iraq to fight the PKK.

Members of Congress were stunned after Edelman briefed them on plans calling for U.S. Special Forces to help Turkey eliminate PKK leaders they have targeted for years, Novak reports. Edelman told the lawmakers that he was “sure of success,” according to Novak, and assured them the U.S. role would be concealed and denied.

“Even if all this is true,” Novak writes, “some of the briefed lawmakers left wondering whether this was a wise policy for handling the beleaguered Kurds, who had been betrayed so often by the U.S. government in years past.”

Is the Bush admin selling the Kurds out in return for Turkey honoring Iraq’s “sovereign border”? Will this pacify Turkey?

I’m not even going to talk about Robert Novak… That dude springs more leaks than a colander.

From NBC’s Mike Viqueira
A group of House Democrats will introduce a resolution calling on the Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will sponsor the measure. It will be dropped in the hopper tomorrow [July 31].

Based on the text of the resolution posted on the MSNBC site, this is a ‘Gee. Do you think we should really impeach this guy?’ resolution, not articles of impeachment.

The Democrats are punks! Damn! Impeach somebody!!!

MSNBC: Impeach Gonzales?