Digital Chosun Ilbo:
Japan Asks North Korea to Stop Missile Exercise. “The minister expressed discomfort though, saying that the situation was unwelcome, especially after the North had promised to freeze its missile launches, citing the Pyongyang Declaration between North Korea and Japan, reported the Japanese media.”
BBC:
Afghan election notebook - what’s happening? Backchannel dealings ... sounds like ‘democracy’ to me. But, “I will vote for Qanuni, because Karzai has only helped the people in Kandahar (his home province).” That’s familiar too ... what have you done for me lately?
Also, via Jihad Unspun, Members Of Hezb-i-Islami Arrested; Karzai Supporters Threaten To Burn Homes Of Opponents. There’s an interesting nugget ... “It is worth noting that Karzai must draw his support from the same communities that are currently under Taliban control. His main competitor is former education minister, Yunus Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik who enjoys wide support in the north.” My italics. Rosy picture, is it not?
NY Times/Reuters:
Economic Gauge Dips, Slowdown Continues. “A leading index of the U.S. economy dipped in the latest week, and a continued lack of growth in the data shows no end in sight to the current slowdown, a report showed on Friday.” The chart on their site shows little hurricane influence, but a much longer downward trend ... I’m anticipating the coming spin. Oh, I’m sorry, Mr Bush. Let me dig some sand from around your ears.
NY Times:
Feel a draft? The winds seem to be blowing in that direction. Panel Calls U.S. Troop Size Insufficient for Demands.
NY Times:
Bush and Allawi Say Iraqi Voting Won’t Be Put Off. If the Sunni clerics take against the election, you’re not talking 4/5’s. You’ll be ignoring almost 1/3, if my readings have been correct. I wonder if the UN will feel this meets their preconditions for a legitimate election. It would be like the 1864 US election, ignoring the South. Sounds more like a precondition - or unspoken realization - of civil war, this rush for November election kudos.
Dividing Iraq into three, might have been the ‘faster’ route to political stability. But I digress.
NY Times Editorial:
Congress slouches toward home. I would add, any original “Contract with America” celebrants shouldn’t be there. Part of their contract was term limits: six years. It’s been ten. But then, the fiscal conservative contract has been broken, too.
CNN:
House bill would block Supreme Court on Pledge. The circus that is the House of Representatives should be reminded they have *real* work to do, rather than disenfranchising all those voting polytheists who also happen to be Americans ...
CNN:
Kerry camp calls new ad “junkyard politics.” Unfortunately, in New Mexico, these ‘traitor’ ads are making traction among the uneducated and working classes, which is why we’re being targeted. Too bad these rules don’t seem to apply to 527’s.
USA Today:
Case in point. Army begins sending more troops to Afghanistan. “Even though NATO has taken over the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, it has not been able to meet troop levels promised by its members. As a result, about 80% of the country has no international protection. The NATO Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has warned that without greater resolve from its members, the alliance risks failing in its first mission outside of Europe.”
NY Times Op-Ed Contributors:
A sort of optimist/pessimist trade off on the editorial page. This is where “balanced” journalism does us few favors, other than training our Google fingers. In “Hope Amid the Rubble”, Peter Bergen equates progress with a trade of military presences [“The Kandahar airport, where I had once seen Taliban soldiers showing off their antiaircraft missiles, is now a vast American base with thousands of soldiers ...”], and prefers to exercise misleadingly optimistic views of Mr Karzai. Mr Karzai’s running mate dropped him. After this, one would delve deeper into all these claims! When quoting voter numbers, there are significant problems. More registrations than there are voters! “... there needs to be rigorous examination of voter registration plus stringent controls at the 5,000 polling centres - otherwise an election which probably will be a genuine achievement for democracy could be marred by serious fraud.” We already know the word “democracy” in the Middle East and Asia is now an epithet, not a desired future. The ‘democratic domino effect’ lies on the edge of a razor, if indeed it even will ever come to be.
In “A Chance of Success Slips Away”, J Alexander Thier gives us more verifiable facts, many of them, not pretty little meaningless interpretations of a small subset of events. He also mentions the events of recent days. Though this author also makes mistakes too ... about voter numbers, without adding a comment about those suspicious turnout numbers. There is much to be optimistic over, just as there is much to be concerned over. I find it important that one be a realist, not a fantasist.
I’ll leave you to make your own judgment. You know where mine lay.
The Economist:
Iran, accused and defiant. “And in any case, America and Europe are, for once, reading from the same page. The Europeans are keener on offering incentives and the Americans readier to threaten punishment. But they share the same goal, and the two strategies, far from being mutually exclusive, may be mutually reinforcing.” Europe carries the honey, we carry the sledgehammer. Thank goodness we’re coordinated. For now.
The Economist:
The comeback Kerry. “The Democrats hate Mr Bush so much that they will follow Mr Kerry wherever he leads, as long as it is not round in circles.”
NY Times Editorial:
How not to save social security. After the recent headlong dive in the values of retirement accounts (who hasn’t been burned by this?), it completely shocks me that this is still considered a viable issue. The Republicans know full well that American citizens have never increased their savings rate by anything close to 2% a year, at any time in our history ... and that in practice, Americans are not ‘future-planners.’ One must take human nature into account, not just hide behind a cold hardline philosophy of “personal responsibility” [the Ebenezer Scrooge view of the world, which I completely reject].
NY Times:
Accusations on Detention of Ex-Singer. If you look at Yusuf Islam’s site, and scroll down through the entries, it sounds like he came to the US in February and May of this year without complications ... even to Washington D.C. No mention of those instances in the news. Why make a stink now? Then again, he could just add his middle initial, and he’d be fine.
Later: Reuters lists a reason for the change in status.
NY Times:
“Putting aside efforts to control the federal deficit before the elections, Republican and Democratic leaders agreed Wednesday to extend $145 billion worth of tax cuts sought by President Bush without trying to pay for them.” Ye gods, they’re actually *afraid* of the flip-flop label. Kerry, DNC, you’ve let this go on too long without a proper rejoinder.
NY Times:
“When you take a look at the leading economic indicators, it’s very clear that the price of oil is having an impact on the economy ...”
NYPress:
Pithy, cryptic, irreverent, and to-the-point. Capture the flag.
CNN:
“Information from spy satellites and radio waves has shown North Korea beefing up troops and equipment around missile launch bases.”
CSM:
Warring visions for Iraq. The right wing isn’t happy, either: “The Cato Institute in Washington has published ‘Exiting Iraq’ in which a number of analysts argue that the US effort in Iraq is draining troops and attention for the pursuit of Al Qaeda.”
Nature:
Personality predicts politics.
BlackAmericaWeb:
Many U.S. troops in Iraq left with anti-Bush feelings. In other words, don’t let the media twist you around, or the polls dishearten you. Ignore the noise ... simply vote.
NY Times:
C.I.A. Review Is Critical of Prewar Iraq Analysis. Semantic whitewash. “A review by the Central Intelligence Agency has identified serious weaknesses in analytical work on Iraq but continues to hold that the prewar conclusion that Iraq possessed illicit weapons was reasonable based on the information available at the time ...” Depends on how reasonable your definition of ‘reasonable’ is. Since the weapons inspection teams were ushered out in 1998, the CIA had no proper intelligence ... other than the dubious source of informants. Certainly they had no direct intelligence of the results of Desert Fox raids. Sounds like they extrapolated from old data ... ‘assuming.’
NY Times:
Pepper-Spray Case Goes to Jury in California. There can be no excuse for torturing restrained individuals. I expect some now suffer from giant papillary conjunctivitis, something medicine can’t cure ... only manage.
NY Times:
Three DeLay aides face charges. Passing the Roebuck.
NY Times:
Iran moves towards enriching uranium. For those of us with memory, things are getting dicey. “One concern is that Israel, an I.A.E.A. member that has not signed the nonproliferation treaty and has nuclear weapons, may decide to take the matter into its own hands if diplomacy fails to deter Iran.” This enrichment issue is a rather large pivot for world history, IMHO, for all it’s being downplayed in most media.
