"In 2000, Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State, ordered county elections officials to purge 57,000 citizens from voter registries as felons not allowed to vote in Florida. In fact, about 95 percent of these voters were innocent of crimes -- but 54 percent were guilty of being African-American. Harris and the state admit that tens of thousands of black voters had been wronged, and with plantation noblesse have agreed to return them to the voter rolls -- at the beginning of 2003.... In 2000, the 180,000 'spoiled ballots' came overwhelmingly from the blackest, poorest, most Democratic counties. Now, the old dogs of ballot-bending are learning some new tricks. Before resigning to run for Congress, Harris leaned hard on the counties to purchase touch screen voting machines. But not just any machines. Harris first authorized the use of machines by only one company, Election Systems & Software of Omaha.... It was ES&S machines that were used in Florida's 2002 primaries and were plagued by countless breakdowns. A report by the state Inspector General says that the company 'bears major responsibility' for the foul-ups. An ACLU study found that, once again, it was Miami-Dade's black voters who were disproportionately disenfranchised by 'lost votes'.... Most troubling of all, some of these practices are going national."

...The intense debate in the United Nations Security Council over a resolution mandating new weapons inspections in Iraq has boiled down to a few phrases deep with meaning for diplomats. But the seven-week battle has masked a larger struggle over the projection and containment of U.S. power, diplomats and analysts said....

In the past two years, the administration has rejected international agreements covering topics from global warming to war crimes, leaving allies deeply cynical about its motives in going to the United Nations now, according to U.N. diplomats.

"The whole debate is about two issues," said an envoy whose country is one of the five permanent Security Council members. "One is Iraq. The other is U.S. power in the world. The second issue is the bigger part of the debate."

Kennedy represented the new, appealing face of America, giving the White House a family and human touch, and championing freedom for people at home and abroad. He acted against racial discrimination in the US and is the only American president to have earned worldwide popular admiration and respect. The country was going through a congressional election campaign, too....

THE ASSASSINATION here Monday of American diplomat Laurence Foley is the latest in a series of terror acts that must be addressed at the levels of both criminality and politics. The killing of Foley was a deep personal tragedy for his family, colleagues and friends, and for his Arab hosts as well. . He and many other Americans work hard every day presenting the best of America to the world — relaxed friendship, official assistance, dedicated professionalism, and a deep, joyous personal commitment to forging mutually satisfying relations between America and the world.

....What does it mean that proven American friends like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan have become symbols of anti-American terror? It means we are witnessing growing divergences between official Arab policy and public opinion in countries where governments rely heavily on American support while public sentiment is very critical of Washington. This also may be the first wave of anti-US terror in the Arab-Asian world generated by the American-led war against terror. It might be largely explained by the convergence of five separate strands of political sentiments of very varied legitimacy:

a) The cumulative indignities and anger that several hundred million Arabs feel against American policies in the Middle East, going back some four decades, to when Washington's policy tilted severely and became explicitly pro-Israeli.

b) Trends since the 1990-91 Gulf War, including the growing permanent US military presence in the region, and the Anglo-American-driven harsh enforcement of the UN embargo against Iraq, two factors that seem to have contributed to spawning Osama Ben Ladenism and Al Qaeda terror against America.

c) Israel's harsh military assaults, political brutality and economic suffocation of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since September 2001, which ordinary Arabs see in parallel with acquiescence by Washington and impotence by Arab governments.

d) America's global “war against terror”, though correct in its inception, is seen to be waged in a discriminating, uneven, manner. Most Arabs and Asians read its latest threat of war to change the regime in Iraq as only emphasising the long tradition of self-serving double-standards in American policy in this region.

e) Many people throughout the Arab-Asian region who feel deeply angry, humiliated, demeaned and helpless because of the above forces become doubly enraged when their own governments limit their freedom of expression or deny them opportunities to participate in political processes that could change government policies. Distortions and rights denials within Arab society only aggravate the pains Arab feel from abroad.

...Saddam Hussein is cruel man, but he seems — to me, at least — a lot saner than Kim Jong Il....Iraq's Saddam

Hussein doesn't have nuclear weapons, but President George Bush wants to use force to disarm him (and actually to dethrone him). North Korea does have nuclear weapons, but President Bush thinks we should use a diplomatic approach, without threats.

What's the difference?

North Korea has no oil; Iraq does. After a bloody war in North Korea, you would have nothing but a poor, devastated country. After a much easier war in Iraq, you would be sitting in charge of the second-largest known oil reserves in the world.

...U.S. estimates of [Amercian] casualties in the event of a war with North Korea said the estimate for the first few hours of combat is 72,000.
North Korea is the fourth-largest military power in the world. It has more than 1 million men in its army, and another 4.7 million in reserve. It has 3,500 main battle tanks and 26 submarines. It has so much of its power perched on the Demilitarized Zone, just a few miles from Seoul, South Korea, and 35,000 American troops, that there is no way we could fight a war without losing thousands of men...

Think about the contrasting headlines made last week by the biggest Arab state and the smallest Arab state. From the biggest state, Egypt, came the news that its state TV planned to run a 41-part series during the month of Ramadan; when TV viewing is at its highest; about a Zionist conspiracy to control Arab lands. [Egyptian TV Revives the 'Protocols of Zion' Myth 10/26 on blogleft] From the smallest state, Bahrain, came the news that it had successfully conducted the first democratic parliamentary election in the Arab gulf, to begin empowering Bahrainis to control their own land.

Therein lies the two Arab responses to 9/11.

One, the Egyptian model, is to feed their people bread, circuses and conspiracy theories to explain why they are falling behind in the world.

The other, the Bahraini model, is to feed their people more responsibility, a freer press and greater ability to shape their own future to help them catch up in the world....

... But the case of Mexico, one of 10 rotating members of the Security Council which so far has sided with France on curtailing any war "triggers" in the resolution, illustrates the nonpecuniary motivations.

"Public opinion in Mexico is not favorable to a war with Iraq, and it would be very costly politically for President [Vicente] Fox to support the US at this point," says Jorge Chabat, a noted Mexican specialist in international relations in Mexico City.

"It is not a case of being pro-French or even anti-American," Mr. Chabat says. "But Mexicans have had their own experience with American power," he adds, noting Mexico's historic loss of half its territory to the US in the 19th century. "Mexican people, more even than other people in the world, are not anxious to support the US in its use of power."

...Within two weeks, [President] Johnson announced that he would halt American bombing above the 20th Parallel, begin peace talks, and not run for reëlection; it looked as if Ellsberg had almost single-handedly engineered the beginning of the end of the war. .... He ends "Secrets" by making a detailed and persuasive case that the leak of the Pentagon Papers did help end the war, though in a way he hadn't anticipated: by setting in motion the Watergate scandal.

Popular US comedian Jon Stewart announced recently on his mock news show’s headlines, that there were plans for a regime change in Florida. After another botched election, Florida had become an embarrassment to the nation. Bombing would begin with targeting the city of Pensacola....

It is now clear that Mr. Bush sees his role as “Globocop” and the USA as the world’s self-appointed policeman....

Protesters represent informed, caring crowd
These people read foreign viewpoints online, don't want to say years hence that they did nothing....Today the crowd is huge; all four corners of the intersection of Cornwall Avenue and Magnolia Street are jammed with people. There is music from flutes and drums, drivers honk their horns in support, a giant puppet of an Iraqi mother holding her dead child looms over the crowd, signs wave in the crisp fall air: PEACE IS PATRIOTIC ... NOT IN OUR NAME ... IRAQIS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DIE....

But Mondale, who served as the co-chairman of the commission, dissented from the majority position that supported raising retirement ages and privatizing government retirement programs. Mondale co-wrote the commission's dissent with six other Americans:

"Although we support the Commission's role in providing leadership in the global aging debate, we are strongly opposed to some of the Commission's findings and recommendations... Some of the Commission's findings and recommendations could be interpreted as mandates to fundamentally change Social Security and Medicare... Population trends should not be an excuse to renege on this commitment. Rather, we should rededicate ourselves to finding creative ways to meet the commitment, particularly because the United States does not face the same demographic challenges as other nations."

The dissent continued: "We do not support the Commission's findings and recommendations that might result in the dismantling of social insurance programs and their replacement with funded schemes. Funded systems are not immune to financial and demographic fluctuations, as the recent stock market performance clearly demonstrates. Funded systems should remain an important supplement to existing guarantees, but they should not replace those guarantees."

So ....Gingrich lied when he attacked Mondale for supporting Social Security privatization -- a policy which Gingrich himself, of course, supports but which he refuses to acknowledge by name.

... "North Korea can export missile and nuclear technology to the highest bidder," [Kim Myong Chol, a North Korean unofficial spokesman, ] "It's a capitalist practice."

"If America tries to knock out Yongbyon," Mr. Kim added, "North Korea will retaliate immediately on New York and Washington, wipe out South Korea, wipe out Japan."....

Some costume manufacturers have decided to forgo the typical fright, blood and gore this Halloween, choosing instead to market culturally insensitive and racially offensive masks as their new hot ticket items....

Times, Russia-- OPINION: IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR PUTIN?

2//Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--KEEP TROOPS HOME: SPLIT ON WAR ROLE

3//Arabia.com, United Arab Emirates-- ILLEGAL BOSNIAN ARMS SALES TO IRAQ MAY BECOME REGIONAL SCANDAL: ASHDOWN

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--DOCTOR, ALL'S NOT WELL IN PAKISTAN

5//The Independent, UK--CONSERVATIVES PULL THE PLUG ON NUCLEAR POWER

The ads began Saturday and will continue at least through the end of the week. Milliken, a Traverse City resident who was governor from 1969-83, said he was embarrassed by a campaign he says appeals to "peoples' worst instincts."

"The race-baiting theme in television ads and campaign materials pitting Detroit and outstate against one another, not to mention some gross distortion of facts, is outrageous," he said. "The blatantly racial nature of these campaign ads is a betrayal of the Republican Party's heritage as the party of Lincoln."

...Our government has supported Saddam Hussein, Osama Ben Laden, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet, death squads in Central America. We have hindered investigations in Haiti by refusing to return materials seized from the Haitian military in September 1994 and failing to disclose documents detailing atrocities. We also hindered the investigations in Rwanda, by refusing to expose those who were providing arms to the killers. We even refused to call genocide “genocide”. As Americans, we are generous and loving ... when we know what is going on. We abhor human rights violations, and evil leaders. We usually root for the underdog in conflicts. In a nutshell, morality tends to be our compass....

It barely made the newspapers late last week when the FBI released a national alert warning that Al Qaeda terrorists may be planning an attack on passenger trains inside the U.S.

That news didn't capture much attention because the media were riveted on the arrests of two men linked to the sniper attacks that had been terrorizing Washington for three weeks. One form of terrorism squeezed out the other.

That's what it's been like for Americans of late. The cataclysmic violence of Sept. 11, 2001. The anthrax scare. The shoe bomber. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A nuclear North Korea. The sniper. The unthinkable, on a regular basis, made real....

This open-ended anxiety is uncharted territory for U.S. society. The U.S. mainland appeared immune from attack even during World Wars I and II, and all but the very hottest moment (the Cuban missile crisis) of the Cold War. And while ordinary crime has always generated fear, the new cascade of domestic and foreign dangers seems different: larger, more organized, more difficult to avoid....

The real change in the atmosphere is the danger of stateless terrorism....

And that is the catch in the throat behind the sigh of relief that the sniper threat has apparently ended. One danger is gone. But others, as unpredictable as these attacks, still wait. After the last year-plus, more of the unimaginable now seems almost inevitable.

The president's failure to tell Congress about North Korea before the vote on Iraq violated separation of powers. ...The president owes us an explanation. The North Koreans had already told him about their nuclear weapons at the time Congress was debating war with Iraq. But he kept this information secret from the House and Senate. And he failed to mention it in his address to the American people in which he urged quick passage of a war resolution. ...We are creating an important precedent for the future. If the administration's breach of protocol is left unchecked this time, the way is open for more distortions the next time.

This is the first election ever in the Arab gulf region where women were allowed to run and vote, and their husbands have quickly discovered what that means. The king's wife, Sheika Sabika � in an unprecedented move in this conservative region, campaigned publicly for women to go out and vote. She visited a Shiite Muslim community center and an elderly woman stood up to say: "Thank you. [Because we can now vote,] for the first time our husbands are asking us what we think and are interested in what we have to say."...

The Bush team needs to pay attention to the Bahrain experiment, because it is a mini-version of what nation-building in Iraq would require. Like Iraq, Bahrain is a country with a Shiite majority, which has been economically deprived, and a Sunni Muslim minority, which has always controlled the levers of power. Historically in this part of the world, democracy never worked because of the feeling that if your tribe or religious community was not in power, it would lose everything, so no rotation in power could be tolerated

...Leaderless revolutionaries, one-man armies, lone wolves angry at the world: you don't need a plane or a bomb to terrorize America. Just one gun....

It took three weeks and 10 deaths to catch one man, possibly aided by a 17-year-old, armed with no more than a rifle and a fistful of bullets, in a part of the country with the highest concentration of police, military and counterterrorism forces.

The hunt for the killer exposed what can and cannot be done to prevent terrorism. The government can fortify high-profile, so-called hard targets like the White House and the airports, but what can it do to protect a Ponderosa Steakhouse?

...But in addition to the passion, conviction was central to the man. The other thing that was so exceptional about Paul Wellstone was his authenticity. He was authentic. There wasn't a sense that the Paul Wellstone you were seeing or I was seeing was different from the one that anybody else was seeing in Duluth or Eveleth or St. Paul. That was the sense of him that I will always cherish. That and rare political courage.

In 1996, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich had fashioned and crafted together a remarkable political document called the welfare reform plan, which as Daniel Patrick Moynihan pointed out, left an awful lot of poor children out. And the only Democratic incumbent in the United States Senate that year who stood up and risked his political career to vote against a very popular, politically popular welfare reform plan was Paul Wellstone.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world has been dominated by a single superpower ­ the United States. Backed by overwhelming military force ­ and a stupendous military budget of close to $400 billion a year ­ the US has sought, and largely secured, global hegemony. Today, the “world order” is an American order. Contemplating the international scene, American intellectuals speak of a new “American imperium,” more powerful and extensive than the Roman or British empires of the past...

...the US has declared war on the nebulous worldwide network of Islamic militants which, after Sept. 11, it sees as the most immediate threat to both its security and its supremacy.

But something strange has happened. Over the past six weeks, the almighty United States has failed to get its way. Having declared its intention to overthrow the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein (which it portrayed on scant evidence as a threat to the entire “civilized world”) it prepared to take military action against Baghdad. It was then persuaded, by its British ally among others, to seek some sort of international legitimacy for its war by means of a new Security Council Resolution....

This is where the problem has arisen. For the past six weeks, in spite of repeated expressions of impatience, naked bullying, economic blackmail, and threats to go it alone, the US has so far failed to secure the resolution it wanted.

Instead, it has had to endure endless wrangling in the Security Council over the wording of the proposed resolution. Any words which could be interpreted as giving the US an automatic right to attack, in the event of Iraqi obstruction of the arms inspectors, have been removed.

At the same time, US efforts to impose draconian arms-inspection terms (which Iraq would almost certainly have rejected) have been watered down.

As the bargaining at the Security Council drags on, the US has been made to appear more petulant than powerful....A dent has been made in America’s vision of a “unipolar” world. Hopes have been raised, although as yet very faint, that a more balanced “bipolar” international order might eventually re-emerge... In contrast to the US message of global hegemony backed by military force, the message from Paris is the need for dialogue, for cultural and political diversity, for respect for human rights, for the peaceful resolution of disputes, for multilateral rather than unilateral action, for international solidarity with the weak and the poor, and above all for the strict application of the law....

Europe is moving steadily forward toward greater unity and is making great efforts to forge a common security and foreign policy. Reconciling the national interests of so many countries, large and small, is not easy. But the reward will be greater power and influence for Europe in world affairs. A bipolar world is on the horizon, able one day to stand up to America’s imperial ambitions.

What is missing in this reorganization of the affairs of the planet is a clear role for Arabs and Muslims. They too need to become a coherent force in the world, able to flex their political, economic and ideological muscles.

Terrorism struck at the heart of America and now at the heart of Russia. No one is safe. Innocent Palestinian, Israeli and Chechen civilians are no longer alone in having to constantly fear for their lives. The average Australian or Briton now knows that he/she can be the next victim, perhaps while on a fatal night out on the town during a holiday on an exotic island.

Military campaigns might — although so far have not managed to — succeed in bringing to justice some of the masterminds of large terrorist operations. But only comprehensive political solutions can ensure that others will not take their place, and that terrorism will not reemerge from where the bombs were dropped.

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong-COMMENTARY: PRAIRIE FIRE OF TERROR SPREADS TO MOSCOW

2//The Australian, Australia--HANDGUNS SHOULD BE BANNED BY CHRISTMAS

3//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--ARAB NATIONS WILL NOT SUPPORT ATTACK ON IRAQ: LEAGUE

4//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--GCC AGREES ON EMERGENCY OIL OUTPUT STRATEGY

5//TheNewsMexico.com, Mexico--UNSTOPPABLE LULA READIES TO TAKE OVER LEADERSHIP OF BRAZIL

Bush devoted his radio address last Saturday to new administration efforts to protect 401(k) retirement accounts. A Sunday night briefing about his plan to speed generic drugs to market was scheduled so hurriedly it was held during Game 2 of the World Series.

If Saudi Arabians choose to kill their economic development and sacrifice international respect by clinging to the 15th century, if the women prefer to remain second-class citizens, then I suppose that's their choice. But if anyone chooses to behave so foolishly, is it any surprise that outsiders point and jeer?

Administration officials later said that the United States would scrap the entire agreement, negotiated during the administration of President Bill Clinton, but that this would not be acknowledged publicly.

[...also indications today of disagreements within the Bush administration over whether to declare as "dead" the 1994 accord...]

These comments set off alarms in Japan, China and South Korea, where officials said the 1994 framework should be preserved and renegotiated to take North Korean concerns into consideration. They called on the United States to continue to negotiate with North Korea over its demands, which include a request that Washington promise not to use nuclear weapons against it. [the preceding is North Korea's response to the Bush doctrine of 'pre-emptive attack']

... in a sense, the damage can be said to have been already done, whatever the outcome in New York. On the whole I take the view that the longer military action is postponed, the less likely [an Iraq war] is to happen. The practical problems of military logistics and follow-through become clearer, the politics in terms of a successor regime and the alliance become less focused.

In a very real sense it no longer matters what happens in the United Nation over the Iraqi resolution. The damage has already been done.

What is happening there now is really a circus for each participant's domestic consumption. President Bush has eyes for the next month's mid-term elections. Having decided to put the issue in the hands of the UN (largely because domestic opinion polls don't support the US going it alone), he now wants to resolve the issue quickly. What he wants is a resolution he can claim gives backing to America's hardline approach to Iraq and leaves the country free to take military action should it wish to.

It is certainly not a retreat, not even a reversal of long-term strategy, but the United States has been quietly redeploying its forces in the Gulf, hinting that an attack on Iraq may be delayed.

After a steady build-up of troops in the area, much of it undisclosed, to 60,000 in the past seven weeks, America's momentum appears to be slowing as the diplomatic war over a new United Nations resolution reaches its final, crucial phase....

If a [UN] resolution is adopted and weapons inspectors return to Iraq for operations expected to take months, then the time frame is almost certain to slip beyond this winter....

There is little sign of political support for a new war from the governments in the region that supported the United States in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Hart and Rudman said there's plenty of blame to go around — from the Bush administration to Congress to private industries that are reluctant to pay the cost of stepped up security and to share information about their vulnerabilities.

The ubiquitous Arab street is infuriated at seeing Palestinian children being gunned down in the West Bank and Gaza on a daily basis; angered by the attacks on Islam and the Prophet by U.S. television evangelists, such as Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson, not to mention being outraged at the racial profiling targeted at Arabs entering the U.S....

A report compiled by the Baker Institute for Public Policy [Remember Hatchetman Jim Baker in Florida after the Presidential election?] and commissioned by American Vice President Dick Cheney, who also heads the White House Energy Policy Development Group, lends transparency to the true intentions of Washington's hawks.
The report, entitled "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century," concludes: "The United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma ... Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets.

"Therefore, the US should conduct an immediate policy review towards Iraq, including military, energy, economic and political/diplomatic assessments."

..."The worst outcome is not a divided vote, which still allows the French to maintain the virginity of their principles," says Malone. "The worst possible outcome would be the Americans walking away from the Council altogether."

Oddly enough, even as the tradition of overt racial politics fades increasingly into the past, [black-white] political voting patterns – particularly in the South – are as polarized as ever. ...

The strategy for Republicans in races like this is simple: Siphon off a small, but crucial segment of the black vote. And if that's not possible, at least neutralize the identifiable community leaders so they don't actively work against your campaign.

More than 330 administration appointees, some of whom were told by White House officials that they needed to show their Republican credentials, have taken vacation time and are being flown by the party to House and Senate campaigns in states where control of Congress will be decided. The appointees will organize volunteers, work the phones and go door to door....

A recent e-mail to the 6,100 full-time headquarters employees of the Environmental Protection Agency reminded them of the provisions of the Hatch Act, which was designed to protect federal employees from political pressure....

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said the administration is paying close attention to the law [I'll bet!] and is following the tradition of past administrations. "The president is the leader of the Republican Party and he's doing everything he can to help elect people who share his agenda," he said. "It's totally appropriate to allow people to participate in the political process."

McGruder, 28, is a "race man" at a time when many up-and-coming African-Americans are being pressured to join the mainstream — a euphemism for thinking and acting like white folks. The characters in his comic strip are a throwback to "Jesse B. Semple," a voice of black consciousness that Langston Hughes unleashed in the Chicago Defender in 1942. [Another url on Hughes.]

"Simple," as Hughes' character was called, challenged the orthodoxies of his day. In a 1944 column, Hughes — reacting to an actual incident — used Simple to explain what might have motivated a black soldier who'd just returned from fighting abroad to strike a white officer on a Southern military base. [I did a "quick-and-dirty" look for the text of Hughes' works online, but didn't find any -- however, if you're interested in pursuing this possibility, check out these results of of a vivisimo search.]

"It seems to me that his might have been merely a case of Jim Crow shock, too much discrimination — segregation fatigue, which, to the sensitive Negro, can be just as damaging as days of heavy air bombardment or a continuous barrage of artillery fire," Simple said.

Health costs are spiraling into another year of double-digit increases. Patients, employers and government health programs are feeling the financial pain. But where is the money going? And why do health costs continue to rise when in so many other parts of the economy — from cars to clothes to computers — prices are falling and profit margins are being squeezed?...

Heroic, vain, calculating, a caliph and a ruthless "terrorist" – a word Osama bin Laden uses of himself – are some of the characteristics of the al-Qa'ida leader that emerge from a remarkable new book by a journalist who knew him.

Syrian President Bashar Assad spoke for the entire Arab world Tuesday when he told US envoy William Burns that “the United States does not seem able to understand events in the Middle East.” Assad’s statement, although accurate, was nonetheless incomplete because it left out the other half of an increasingly problematic equation: The Arabs have also demonstrated a palpable inability to understand the United States. The result has been a decades-long “dialogue of the deaf” that has opened a chasm of misunderstanding so wide and so deep that it might be permanent.

Arab regimes look at the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and marvel at how Washington can claim any credibility as an “honest broker” when it helps fund the expansion of illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories. The US government listens to Arab leaders explain their abhorrence for Saddam Hussein and wonders why they do not then support military action to overthrow the Iraqi dictator. Neither has any understanding of the other’s concerns, nor even the mind-set to investigate how events of both the recent and distant pasts are blurring both perceptions and principles.

So what to do other than nurturing bile and resentment? Or writing angry emails and letters to those who've once again shown no moral courage? Or thanking the 23 Senators and 133 Representatives who found the strength to resist all the lies and threats?

We might start by recognizing that we've made some progress. A few weeks ago, the press reported that a mere 19 House Democrats would vote against the resolution. Only two Senators opposed the Tonkin Gulf resolution [click for the results of a vivisimo search; on 10/4, we posted Floyd McKay's Op Ed on Oregon's Senator Morse] that opened the door to our full-scale war in Vietnam. Those who stood up now did so knowing they would be attacked and baited for their stands. (And Bush timed this vote to fracture and demoralize the Democratic base and drive all other issues off the table for the November elections.) Yet they found the courage to vote their conscience--and did so in part because so many citizens like us made clear their opposition to this war.

At a seminar here this week on relations between America and Islam, one of the questions discussed by American and Muslim scholars was that elusive issue: Where is the Arab street and how might it respond to a U.S. invasion of Iraq? For my money, the most helpful answer was provided by the Jordanian columnist Rami Khouri, who said that "what's really important today is not the Arab street, but the Arab basement."

This is an important distinction. The "Arab street" is the broad mass of public opinion, which is largely passive and nonviolent. The "Arab basement" is where small groups of hard-core ideologues, such as Osama bin Laden and his gang, have retreated and where they are mixing fertilizer, C-4 plastic explosives and gasoline to make the bombs that have killed Westerners all over the world.

In the high-stakes game of geopolitical chicken in which Washington and Baghdad are engaged, President Saddam Hussein is not going to blink first, according to biographers of the Iraqi leader and others who have studied his character and behavior....

Adept at tactical maneuvering, determined to retain power, but aware that bowing to the Americans would destroy his self-image as the new Nebuchadnezzar, President Hussein would fight to the end if it came to war, experts say....

Those who say that they don’t hate America, only its foreign policy, have to think again. America no longer has a foreign policy; it has a defense policy, or, to be more precise, a military and war policy.
Time was when America saw war as a last resort. Now, war has become the first resort. The diplomats of the State Department have to make way for the hawkish warmongers of the Pentagon.

... It all began with the now-infamous July 10 background briefing to the Defense Policy Board by a Rand Corp. “analyst” named Laurent Murawiec. It was a lecture full of accusations directed not only at Saudi Arabia, but also at the entire Arab world. Murawiec concluded that Saudi Arabia must be invaded and its oilfields occupied.

... The most significant U.S. concession was the elimination of language that could automatically trigger military action if Iraq does not cooperate with inspectors. The administration also removed a clause granting the council's permanent members the right to participate in U.N. inspections. Instead the council would order the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, to employ "accomplished, dedicated and experienced experts" on U.N. missions to Iraq.

The U.S. resolution proposes that U.N. inspectors be granted the authority to invite Iraqi weapons scientists and their families out of the country for interviews and to establish "no fly" and "no drive" zones around suspected weapons sites. These zones, according to a provisional clause in the resolution, could possibly be enforced by U.S., British or U.N. forces. U.N. security guards would also be posted at U.N. bases across the country.

...All three assertions were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought. And all three statements were dubious, if not wrong. Further information revealed that the aircraft lack the range to reach the United States; there was no such report by the IAEA; and the customs dispute over the detectors was resolved long ago.

Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders—and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship? ....

I ended up thinking that the Nazi analogy paralyzes the debate about Iraq rather than clarifying it. Like any other episode in history, today's situation is both familiar and new. In the ruthlessness of the adversary it resembles dealing with Adolf Hitler. But Iraq, unlike Germany, has no industrial base and few military allies nearby. It is split by regional, religious, and ethnic differences that are much more complicated than Nazi Germany's simple mobilization of "Aryans" against Jews. Hitler's Germany constantly expanded, but Iraq has been bottled up, by international sanctions, for more than ten years. As in the early Cold War, America faces an international ideology bent on our destruction and a country trying to develop weapons to use against us. But then we were dealing with another superpower, capable of obliterating us. Now there is a huge imbalance between the two sides in scale and power....

If we had to choose a single analogy to govern our thinking about Iraq, my candidate would be World War I. The reason is not simply the one the historian David Fromkin advanced in his book A Peace to End All Peace: that the division of former Ottoman Empire territories after that war created many of the enduring problems of modern Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. The Great War is also relevant as a powerful example of the limits of human imagination: specifically, imagination about the long-term consequences of war.

SUSAN DENTZER:... So in fact what brand manufacturers have done in some instances is stack one 30-month stay on top of another 30-month stay on top of another 30-month stay, in effect delaying the entry of a generic competitor to the market for in some instances as much as 40 months, or almost four years. ...

SUSAN DENTZER:... there's still this 30-month stay, that's what the FDA regulation would do is create one single 30-month stay on the process. In addition to that, the FDA would also restrict the number of patents that a brand name manufacturer can file in the so-called orange book, which is the bible of drugs that the FDA has approved, it would limit the number of patents that the companies, not the number, but the type of patents that those companies could file, and there by restrict the kinds of frivolous patents that many of the generic manufacturer have complained have been an anti-competitive device. ...

RAY SUAREZ: One of the most influential lobbies in Washington is that of the pharmaceutical industry. ... What's been Pharma's response?

SUSAN DENTZER: ... publicly Pharma is not saying anything, but privately it is known that Pharma was very concerned about the fact that the Senate did pass that legislation last summer, which would actually have gone much farther than the FDA rule today would have gone in terms of baring the kinds of legal maneuvers that some companies were engaging in....

... David Kelly, a former British Foreign Office expert who led 37 UN biological weapons inspections of Iraq in the '90s, said the Virginia-based American Type Culture Collection company admitted selling the anthrax strains to Saddam Hussein's government in 1985.

The company confirmed to the UN that it sold the anthrax to Iraq through a mail order, Kelly said in a telephone interview from London. Anthrax is now being sent through the mail in a series of terrorist attacks, though U.S. investigators have not yet linked these to any group. ...

The regime that President Bush is so eager to oust so quickly is one that two previous presidents — Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Jimmy Carter — have courted, funded and even protected.

As early as 1979, Saddam’s first year as dictator, the Carter administration ignored Iraq’s status as a terrorist state and urged it to attack Iran. According to congressional records, the United States was selling Saddam the ingredients to make anthrax, botulism, E. coli and other bioweapons throughout the 1980s, even after the revelation that he had been gassing tribal Kurds and Iranians....

The Reagan administration went so far as to run cover for Saddam, initially blaming Iran for the 1988 gassing of Iraqi Kurds.

“No question — Saddam was not just one more dictator,” said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank. “Our relationship with him was a very strategic one.” ...

By 1989, U.S. war planners were starting to create scenarios with Saddam as the leading threat in the Middle East. But as late as January 1990, a National War College report concluded, "Baghdad should not be expected to deliberately provoke military confrontations with anyone. Its best interests now and in the immediate future are served by peace.” The following summer, a cash-strapped Saddam accused Kuwait of “angle” drilling into its vast southern Rumaila and Zubair oil fields and invaded its neighbor to the southeast. [For the quote in the link above, scroll down to the 1989 material.]

The United States could overlook Saddam’s war crimes, but threatening the flow of oil was unacceptable.

The sign has provoked a peaceful demonstration, critical letters to The Bellingham Herald, theft of sign panels, vandalism with paint and a tomato, and about a dozen angry phone calls to Greg Grant, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Miller-Arnason. ...

[Lyle Harris] wrote a letter to the editor critical of the U.S. Customs Service sign in Bellingham... Harris, a professor of journalism at Western Washington University, ... teaches a course on media law that focuses on the First Amendment.

Harris said the problem with the sign is that it asks people to report suspicious activity, which goes against the American tradition that it's an ethical violation to rat or squeal to the government about someone's political activity.

"A person who witnesses a crime, such as a bank robbery, has an ethical obligation to let the police know and give detail," he said. "But that's completely different from a vague idea that someone is suspicious."

He said what happens is that people begin to report on things that have nothing to do with criminal activity.

"It causes paranoia, to think people would report that I read a particular book, or had a Muslim person to my house, or visited a Muslim country. Or that someone had firearms - because we live in a hunting country."

Harris cited research done after the fall of the Berlin Wall showing that when people in communist bloc countries were forced to spy on their neighbors, many of those reportings were to get even with people - landlords, or ex-wives, or ex-husbands or someone who did them wrong.

"We have law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the CIA, whose job it is to seek out and arrest real terrorists," he said. "It is not the citizen's job to engage in such a serious spy activity without special training and certification."

A Citizen Endorses the 'TIPS' Program
Letter in Bellingham (WA) Herald 9/28/02: "Reader set to turn himself in for suspicious activity"

Thanks for printing the picture of Bellingham's new U.S. Government TIPS sign with the 800 number that tells how we should spy on each other and report suspicious and dangerous people. I've decided to report myself as suspicious. I have an interest in atomic weapons and one July Fourth, upon tying six firecrackers together and lighting it off, I commented to those around me: "Let's get a couple packages, tie them together and make an atomic bomb." And "Dr. Strangelove" is my favorite movie!

While I was an undergraduate, I had friends in the Cosmopolitan Club from Iran, Iraq, Japan, Canada, Venezuela, Bolivia and Turkey.

Further, I have souvenirs from travel in a Muslim country. I also have a history of the Third Reich and biographies of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin and some books on China - including Mao's "Little Red Book." Such titles might not bother U:S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, of course, as those dictators didn't just urge people to spy on their neighbors, but required it. I also have a relative living in the woods of Montana who is a member of a national group that promotes firearms and dangerous weapons. He's a member of the, well, let's not disclose it here, but it has three words in the name and starts with National.

Worse, I have learned a great deal about explosives, how to blow up buildings, hate, terrorism and; indeed, war and aggression in a publication that I get daily - The Bellingham Herald.

[A Citizen of Bellingham (Wa)]
Bellingham (WA)

Both Secretary Powell and Ms. Rice, in their television appearances today, emphasized the need for inspections to provide a quick test of Mr. Hussein's intentions. "The world is going to have to have a zero-tolerance view if he is unwilling to cooperate this time," said Ms. Rice, on CNN's "Late Edition." She said the United States would not tolerate a delay of even two hours between a request to inspect a site and the inspection itself because it would allow Iraqis to destroy documents.

Secretary Powell said on the ABC News program "This Week" that once it became clear that the inspectors could not function, "they're going to come home" right away. "Either Iraq cooperates and we get this disarmament done through peaceful means, or they do not cooperate and we will use other means to get the job done," he said.

Mr Powell, raising the possibility that the US might not seek "regime change" as it has repeatedly promised over the past 18 months, said on Sunday that if Saddam abandoned his chemical, nuclear, and biological programs, the Government would be altered so dramatically that in effect the goal would be reached. [...Although Mr Powell's remarks appeared at odds with US policy, they echoed a recent rhetorical shift in the Administration...]

"We think the Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime," he said, "but the principal offence here is weapons of mass destruction ... The major issue before us is disarmament."

President Bush is to announce on Monday that his administration will carry out measures intended to give Americans faster access to low-cost generic versions of brand-name drugs, administration officials said tonight.

The plan, similar to but less extensive than a bill passed in July by the Democratic-controlled Senate, is intended to reduce the ability of manufacturers of brand name drugs to delay the approval and marketing of generic versions of their products.

With only 15 days to go before the midterm elections, administration officials were clearly eager to portray the president as engaged on the issue of prescription drug costs, a topic that polls suggest ranks high on the list of voters' concerns. Broader legislation to provide prescription drug coverage to retirees has been bottled up by partisan disputes in Congress. White House officials previewed the president's planned announcement in an abruptly scheduled conference call with reporters at 7:45 tonight.

In a speech in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush is to say he will put in force recommendations by the Federal Trade Commission to make it harder for brand-name drug companies to exploit loopholes in existing law, the officials said.

Generic drugs, which are biologically and chemically equivalent to brand-name medicines, usually cost much less, so sales of the brand-name drugs typically plummet after generic competitors enter the market. But a maker of brand-name drugs can often win a 30-month delay in federal approval of generic drugs by filing a lawsuit claiming infringement of its patents.

Some companies have delayed generic competition for years by repeatedly filing new patent claims for brand-name drugs already on the market.

A funny thing happened in Iran the other day. The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, published a poll on Iranian attitudes toward America, conducted by Iran's National Institute for Research Studies and Opinion Polls. The poll asked 1,500 Iranians whether they favored opening talks with America, and 75 percent said "yes." More interesting, 46 percent said U.S. policies on Iran — which include an economic boycott and labeling Iran part of an "axis of evil" — were "to some extent correct."
Oops!

You can imagine what happened next. Iran's hard-liners shut down the polling institute and threatened the IRNA official who published the results. Never mind. The fact that the hard-liners had to do such a thing shows how out of touch they are with Iran's courageous mainstream....

The Arab and Muslim worlds today are largely dominated by autocratic regimes. If you want to know what it would look like for them to move from autocracy to democracy, check out Iran. In many countries it will involve an Iranian-like mixture of theocracy and democracy, in which the Islamists initially win power by the ballot box, but then can't deliver the jobs and rising living standards that their young people desire, so they come under popular pressure and can only hold on to power by force...

But eventually they will lose, because the young generation in Iran today knows two things: (1) They've had enough democracy to know they want more of it. (2) They've had enough theocracy crammed down their throats to know they want less of it. Eventually, they will force a new balance in Iran, involving real democracy and an honored place for Islam, but not an imposed one.

But why is it taking so long? Why isn't Iran like Poland or Hungary after the fall of the Berlin Wall? And why might Iraq not be like them after the fall of Saddam? The answer is spelled O-I-L.

For all these reasons, if we really want to hasten the transition from autocracy to something more democratic in places like Iraq or Iran, the most important thing we can do is gradually, but steadily, bring down the price of oil — through conservation and alternative energies.

I know that Dick Cheney thinks conservation is for sissies. Real men send B-52's. But he's dead wrong. In the Middle East, conservation and alternative energies are strategic tools.

Ronald Reagan helped bring down the Soviet Union by using two tactics: he delegitimized the Soviets and he defueled them. He delegitimized them by branding the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire," and by exposing its youth to what was going on elsewhere in the world, and he defueled them by so outspending them on Star Wars that the Soviet Union went bankrupt. In the Middle East today, the Bush team is delegitimizing the worst regimes as an "axis of evil," but it is doing nothing to defuel them. Just the opposite. We refuel them with our big cars.

The White House withheld North Korea's admission about a nuclear weapons program from key Democrats until after Congress had passed its resolution authorizing war with Iraq, prompting complaints on Capitol Hill that the administration has let politics influence its conduct of foreign affairs.... "

Knock out electric power, computers and telecommunication and you've destroyed the foundation of modern society. In the age of Third World-sponsored terrorism, the E-bomb is the great equalizer.

DONAHUE: That’s Harry Belafonte being arrested during a protest against Apartheid in South Africa. We’re back with entertainer, humanitarian Harry Belafonte.
Well, let’s get right to it here. This is an August release.
Africare will honor Harry Belafonte at the upcoming Africare Bishop John T. Walker memorial dinner. The largest, most prestigious event for Africa in the United States. This is coming up, October 24.
Delivering the keynote address, says this August release from the Africa news service at the 2002 dinner will be the honorable Condoleezza Rice. When you learned that they were going to honor you, and that Condoleezza Rice was going to be the key noter, what did you do?
BELAFONTE: I protested.
DONAHUE: By?
BELAFONTE: By telling them that if Condoleezza Rice became the keynote speaker at the event, and therefore, have the authority of that opinion, and that were to prevail, that I would not be able to be there to validate that fact.
I did not like her policies and I thought that she was an inappropriate speaker for the evening. And they’ve gotten Andrew Young.
DONAHUE: Is it your understanding that they disinvited her?
BELAFONTE: Yes, they did.
DONAHUE: As a result of your phone call suggesting that you’re not going to show.
BELAFONTE: That’s right, in protest.
DONAHUE: You may not be surprised to learn that Africare is citing scheduling problems as the reason for Ms. Rice not giving the keynote address. Belafonte or his political views contributed to Rice not appearing at the award dinner was not a fact. They denied that.
BELAFONTE: Well, let me tell you that I cannot speak for why Africare has chosen to put out that point of view. The truth of the matter is that, when I first heard it, nobody consulted me.
They’ve been asking me for a very long time to be a part of the event. And I willingly did it, with the understanding that I would have to be totally informed about who and what would be the evening. They never did that. So when it showed up that Condoleezza Rice was to be the keynote speaker, I protested that fact. I told them I would not come.
DONAHUE: Condoleezza Rice was raised by parents who made sure she did her homework, practiced her piano lessons, be somebody. Be somebody. Not unlike your parents. Not unlike Colin Powell’s parents. And boy, didn’t she become somebody? I mean, she may be the first voice to the president’s ear.
BELAFONTE: Condoleezza Rice is one of the brightest people I’ve ever known or heard of.
DONAHUE: But it sounds like, you’re very close to saying if you’re black, you’d better not work for this administration or you’re going to be an Uncle Tom.
BELAFONTE: No, if you’re black, do not acquiesce to this administration when they’re doing things that are against public and human interests and human values. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not saying don’t work for them. I’m not saying don’t be involved.
What I’m saying is, do not give in. Use your platform to protest.
Use your platform to persuade. Use your platform to inform. DONAHUE: We recently did a program that featured a segment on what happened to the Bush/Gore thing in Florida? How did they do that? And a BBC reporter said, among other things, they got rid of black people. They used a computer agency. Black people, that were significant numbers of African-Americans who couldn’t vote in Florida. Black folks.
And then we had a young man by the name of Aaron McGruder, who was the creator of “Boondocks,” a smash new comic, about black folks. And he’s got a panel where they give the most embarrassing negro award to Condoleezza Rice. I said, that’s pretty rough.
Here’s what he said, not unlike what you’re saying. Here is Aaron McGruder on the Bush administration and the black people who work for this administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON MCGRUDER, POLITICAL CARTOONIST: I have a problem with the whole administration. And, you know, they’re gangsters. And I can actually respect that they’re gangsters. But you really don’t want gangsters going to war.
And Condoleezza, Colin Powell, as African-Americans, you know, just to be part of a regime that got into power, as we saw earlier, by disenfranchising so many black people. It just seems very wrong to me.

... [Critics] argue just as adamantly that North Korea demonstrates the dangers of what they see as Bush's strong-arm, black-and-white approach to foreign policy.
"These contradictions demonstrate the fundamental problems with trying to turn a slogan -- axis of evil -- into some kind of operational strategy for how to deal with weapons of mass destruction," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Administration hard-liners "would like to take these guys on one at a time, " Cirincione said. "They recognize -- and this is part of the sobering reality -- that as powerful as the United States is, it can't take on two regional conflicts at once. Second, every weapon that we suspect Iraq might have, North Korea does have, in spades.
"A quick comparison just undermines the administration's case that Iraq somehow presents a unique, urgent threat," he said. "It just isn't true."

... French President Jacques Chirac did his very best on Thursday to make the accurate case that while an American-led war against Iraq should be the last option, Baghdad also has to do its part to prevent the outbreak of hostilities. By sticking to his guns over the clear principle that any assault over Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction should only take place under the auspices of the United Nations, Chirac has provided a gallant defense of the world body’s credibility in the face of persistent attempts by Washington and London to raise the banner of collective security even as they threaten to take unilateral action unless they get their way. ... Another war will not just deal a crippling blow to Iraq: It will also further destabilize a region that is already reeling on several levels. For the sake of Iraqis and all Arabs ­ and yes, for the sake of Israelis as well ­ no effort should be spared in trying to calm tempers and defuse the looming crisis before events acquire such momentum that nothing can stop them.

... The Bali incident, coming on the heels of the alleged terrorist attack on the French oil tanker off Yemen and continuing sniping at American troops, demonstrates the resentments towards Western influences and the vulnerabilities of representatives of the supposedly more advanced nations.

What appears to be stepped-up terrorist activities also reflect widespread resentment at the growing imbalance in the standards of living between residents of the northern and southern hemispheres. The former have benefited from the end of the cold war and the extended period of economic growth and prosperity. However, people in the poorer southern climes have for the most part been left behind, notwithstanding the individual success stories of some states in Southeast Asia.

A final factor which has influenced the spread of terrorist activities is the role of the media. In a world brought close together through the “CNN-isation” of mass communications, instant worldwide news is reported 24 hours a day. Competition between global networks leads to sensationalism of reporting, which in turn provides publicity to groups which would in many cases languish in obscurity.

In Serbia this month, they gave an election and no one came. The voting will have to be repeated. This is not a good sign for that country’s fledgling democracy. Unfortunately, ours isn’t much healthier.

The silver lining, the UN and relief agencies say, is that they have been aware the possibility of war for months, and so are making preparations. Still, the agencies make clear that Iraqis are living far closer to the bone today than they were in 1991 – and that the political signals coming from Washington indicate that the scale of any new war is likely to be vast and destructive.

Plan C

Meanwhile, outside the world body a more radical idea is getting attention.

In its proposal "A New Approach: Coercive Inspections," the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace suggests a middle path between war and the resumption of ineffectual inspections: that a US-led military force of 40,000-plus troops escort weapons inspectors into Iraq.

Carnegie began peddling the proposal in early September when Bush administration hawks advocating "regime change" still had the upper hand. Its authors presented their ideas to top White House and Pentagon officials, and on Sept. 19, to the US House International Relations Committee. So far, though, only some US analysts and commentators – not world leaders and policymakers – are promoting it.

Still, "With all the incontrovertible risks of war with Iraq, any administration would have to think twice, three times, five times about going to war," says Carnegie President Jessica Mathews.

"But I also feel these weapons of mass destruction must be dealt with. So, the field ought to be open to a better idea."

...Some observers say the administration will learn now that it was a grave mistake for Bush to equate North Korea and Iraq in his "axis" portrayal: The different approaches to the two challenges will expose the US to more charges of warmongering (in the case of Iraq) and of contradictory action.

...The history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only - gold. As the natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he wrote in his diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have no iron ... With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day.

This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the White House (you call them "hawks", but I would never disparage such a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as terrorist.

... Whatever motivates current U.S. foreign policy -- oil, domestic politics, or the Oedipal rage of a lackluster son -- it isn't likely to make us any safer. The war in Afghanistan, combined with Bush's meek stance toward Sharon, has already convinced Muslims throughout the world that their lives have no value to America's leaders. An invasion of Iraq and the attendant "collateral damage" will harden the impression that the United States is pursuing its own kind of jihad -- against the Islamic world.

On Thursday, U.S. sources denied to NBC that Washington was ready to compromise to appease the French. However, The Associated Press reported that U.S. diplomats had backed down from their demand that a new resolution must authorize military force if Baghdad fails to cooperate with weapons inspectors.

Instead, they said, the United States is now floating a compromise that would give inspectors a chance to test Iraq’s will to cooperate on the ground. If Iraq then failed to disarm, the Bush administration would agree to return to the Security Council for further debate and possibly another resolution authorizing action.

... So, moral clarity, as the president uses the term, means just the opposite: the amoral--and sometimes immoral--self-interest of the powerful. An even more curious inversion of reality comes when those of us raising critical questions are accused of being moral relativists.

...The point is simple: Calls for moral clarity, if they are to be more than empty rhetoric, require that we bother ourselves with the facts and pay attention to history.

Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly miscalculations on Iraq, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, Bush's Middle East envoy.

It takes many years of political, social, economic and human degradation to create a terrorist; so fighting terror can only succeed by re-humanising degraded societies, by undoing, one-by-one, the many individual acts of repression, obstruction, denial, marginalisation and autocracy that cumulatively turned wholesome developing societies into freak nations and decent, God-fearing people into animals that kill with terror.

It takes many years of political, social, economic and human degradation to create a terrorist; so fighting terror can only succeed by re-humanising degraded societies, by undoing, one-by-one, the many individual acts of repression, obstruction, denial, marginalisation and autocracy that cumulatively turned wholesome developing societies into freak nations and decent, God-fearing people into animals that kill with terror.

"Russian companies are worried the new regime may discard previously signed agreements and favor the U.S. oil industry," said Fred Mutalibov, an oil-field services analyst for SWS Securities in Dallas. "To get Russia's support, or at least their silent agreement, the United States has to assure that Russian oil interests will be considered once the regime change has occurred."

"The objective of the strike could have been to destroy air defenses to allow easy access for special operations helicopters to fly into Iraq via Jordan or Saudi Arabia as part of a critical primary mission to hunt down Scud" missiles, Baker said recently. "Knocking out Iraqi radars at H-3 also would allow allied aircraft mounting major raids on Iraq a clear route into the country."

SENATOR CHUCK Hagel - Republican, skeptic, and reluctant Bush supporter on Iraq - was the first member of Congress I am aware of who articulated the most important point about Congress's hedged authorization for the use of military force. ''We have not put this behind us,'' the Nebraskan said last week, making it clear the votes in the House and Senate were just the beginning of Congress's role on behalf of an anxious and questioning country.

Indeed, even before the votes, the issues that raise questions and doubts started popping up with disturbing frequency. [Oliphant gives details, which you should read. Here's an example:]

We have no idea how to pay for the war if it comes, not to mention the equally demanding aftermath.

And there is one question my administration source did not blow away. If, as he says, the Bush team was well aware by Inauguration Day that the bottom was dropping out of the "bubble" economy, then why did it rely on those inflated budget surplus estimates to justify the long-term tax cuts that the president still defends?

...When gathering in Philadelphia, the framers of the constitution were concerned with both separating powers between the branches of government, while at the same time encouraging collective decision making. Consequently, the president was responsible for conducting foreign policy, “with the advice and consent of Congress.” Congress, on the other hand, was responsible for declaring war. ...

Once before in recent history the Congress abdicated [its constitutional duty]. In response to an attack on the USS Maddox, a surveillance ship spying off the coast of North Vietnam in 1965, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon Johnson all-encompassing powers to prosecute the war against North Vietnam.

According to Ruy Teixeira and John Judis, authors of "The Emerging Democratic Majority," the Democrats are poised, in terms of demographic trends, to take over the White House and Congress. That may explain why the Republicans have resorted to deceit, misinformation, propaganda, subterfuge, impeachment, and stolen elections to maintain power. Remember, Bush ran campaign ads that made him look like a soft and fuzzy Democrat. Only after being appointed did he pull the bait and switch and turn into the Darth Vader of right wing politics.

...The heightened focus by Bush on the economy -- and the effort to shift culpability to Democrats -- came as the Republican National Committee was ready to send a memo to its campaigns Tuesday reporting that internal GOP polling shows the economy is the most important issue to voters, followed by terrorism and education.

In case you haven't noticed, the people running Al Qaeda are smart. Saturday's bombing in Bali, presumably carried out by a group connected to Al Qaeda, was monstrously evil. It was also, I'm sorry to say, very clever. And it reinforces the sinking feeling that our leaders, who seem determined to have themselves a conventional war, are playing right into the terrorists' hands.