Holy crap...

This could be the spark that sets off the long threatening civil war that's been percolating for a couple of years now in Iraq:

In Iraq, bombing sparks fears of more violence

Today's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, has renewed fears of an escalation in violence between the country's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities. Protests erupted in Samarra (photo) and elsewhere around Iraq, while some Shiite leaders appealed for calm while others promised retribution. President Bush has condemned the bombing and urged Iraqis to "exercise restraint" in responding to it. Here's a roundup of the latest news:

and...

Update at 5:55 p.m.ET: Three imams were killed as Shiite gunmen attacked 27 Sunni mosques.

- Al Jazeera reports that Shiite leaders in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood "called for demonstrations against the blast." The Arab network also gives this background on the shrine that was attacked: "The shrine contains the tombs of two revered (Shiite) imams, both descendants of the prophet Mohammed. ... An attack at such an important religious shrine would constitute a grave assault" on Shiites.

And more here.

Drinking Liberally in Richmond, VA

Don't forget, Drinking Liberally (hosted by Richmond's own J.C Wilmore) is this Thursday (February 23), 7-9pm at Richbrau Brewing Co. 1214 E. Cary St. Join Richmond's 'Drinking Liberally' mailing list here. More info on 'Drinking Liberally' here.

The Black Hole

For nearly a year now I've been seeing a steady trickle of news articles about the tangle of political and religious grudges in Iraq that appear to be deeply infiltrated into the Iraqi police and security forces. Today I read another one in Newsweek. Here's a snippet:

No one knows how many death squads are currently operating in Iraq, but in the past year hundreds of murdered bodies have been found, many of them with their wrists bound execution style and a single bullet through the head. Some death squads are killing Shiites; others are executing Sunnis. In many cases, witnesses tell of victims being abducted by unidentified men in police uniforms. Almost unnoticed amid the country's chaos, the dirty war is beginning to rival the insurgency in its deadliness and in its damage to national stability.

The administration has avoided discussing this problem for obvious reasons, but it demands serious attention. When I read that US troops are arresting Iraqi cops/deathsquads it sends up a red flag. We seem to be getting pulled deeper into the complicated morass of Iraqi political and social conflicts. It's arguable that we are obligated to do this. Our toppling of the previous regime let this genie out of the bottle. That's fair. But where does it end? Is the American public ready to dive into the challenge of sorting out these deep grudges that exist between the various factions? I don't think we've had this discussion yet, not really, and it's pretty important that we figure out where we want to draw the line here...or if it's even possible to draw that line now. Maybe it isn't.

Cheney gets his flowers

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb parked at a Baghdad market killed 21 people and wounded at least 25 on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks for weeks.

An Interior Ministry official said the 25 wounded were nearly all civilians, while a hospital source said medics were treating at least 32 people injured in the explosion.

Witnesses said people in the market spotted a man park the car and make off despite efforts to apprehend him.

Iran pulls a "freedom fry"

In response to public outcry over some offensive cartoons published in Danish newspapers, Iranians have renamed a favorite treat:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.

Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday after the confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

"Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to 'Rose of Muhammad' pastries," the union said in its order.

"This is a punishment for those who started misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," said Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in northern Tehran.

Cartoons

They're getting in on the controversial cartoon action over at The Poor Man Institute

Shoe-Bomb-a-Palooza II: Sneakers of Mass Destruction

Digby's got the latest on the dastardly plot via leaked Al Quaeda phone conversations hot off the NSA wiretaps!

#2: Uh, Mohammed?

#1: Yes Mohammed?

#2: Something, um, doesn't sound right. Are you quite sure...

#1: Of course I'm sure. It says right here [sounds of more paper shuffling] that we are to use high explosives to gain access to the cockpit, where we then threaten to blow up the rest of plane if they don't fly it into the Liberty...

#2: Literary...

#1: Liberty, Literary... I don't... [sighs] Look, just tell the pilot "The tall one." I'm quite sure they'll know which building you're talking about. Just tell them that if they don't immediately fly the plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles, you'll blow them up with your Sneakers of Mass Destruction. They won't want that, I can assure you.

Catch the rest of the shocking exchange over at Hullabaloo!

The electronic confessional

If you haven't ever checked out the long term community art project "Post Secret", it's worth looking at. When I popped in there today I noticed that the creator of the site has compiled a book of many of the secrets that participants have mailed in, many that were posted on the site and some that were never seen. The Post Secret book will be sold in chain and indie bookstores.

Pickled NASA

From the NYT:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless

Bob Harris hits the nail on the head in his quick analysis of Fox News' top of the hour news line-up (name your hour or day, it's all the same).

...In other news, not a single word about Abramoff meeting Bush a dozen times, or the trade deficit hitting an all-time high, or that the world is the warmest it has been in 1200 years.

Nope. Not one word. Instead:

Lead story: Jill Carroll. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Second lead: Bird Flu. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Third story: Big car crash on Mexican border. (Wow. Pretty desperate.) Message: The world is dangerous. And you are powerless and blameless...

Breaking News!!!

This Modern World has gotten ahold of the super-secret transcript of the Al Quaeda, "L.A. Shoe-bomb-a-palooza" plans... hatched via Instant Messenger! Who knew?!?

You've got to be kidding

Bush has revealed the details of the dastardly terrorist plot to attack LA in 2002:

In a speech at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said the cell planned to use shoe bombs to gain entry to the cockpit door and then fly the plane into a Los Angeles high-rise. The president called it the “Liberty Tower” but the White House later corrected that to the Library Tower, since renamed the US Bank Tower.

There are so many things wrong with this that it's really hard to know where to begin...and frankly, I doubt people with two brain cells to rub together need my help to see that. So I won't bother getting into it. What seems pretty evident to me is that this is complete bullshit. If it's not, then I think we can stop being worried about any more terrorist attacks because clearly, they're too profoundly stupid to ever pull it off.

Indictments

Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge indicted on 7 counts of capital murder today:

A multijurisdictional grand jury meeting in Richmond indicted Ricky Javon Gray, 28, for the New Year's Day beating deaths of local musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife Kathryn, 39, and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, at their home in Woodland Heights.

The panel also handed up capital murder indictments against Gray's nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, also 28, for the Jan. 6 suffocation killings of Percyell Tucker, 57, his wife, Mary Baskerville-Tucker, 47, and her daughter, Ashley Baskerville, 21, in the Tucker home on East Broad Rock Road.

The indictments -- the product of weeks of intensive investigation by the Richmond Police Department and other law enforcement agencies -- came with both a profound sense of relief and sadness, said Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring.

He called the killings of the two families one of the city's greatest tragedies in recent memory.

Democracy, Iraqi style

A good post on the Iraqi elections (and Iraqi politics in general) from an Iraqi point of view over at Baghdad Burning.

Are you having trouble telling these two men apart?

Nice new TV spot from Moveon.org.

"...they sometimes forget"

The lynchpin of our brilliant NSA wiretapping strategy is revealed:

BIDEN: Thank you very much.

General, how has this revelation damaged the program?

I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.

I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.

And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.

(LAUGHTER)

(The entire exchange is here)

Beautiful Dreamers

My husband and I are in the process of buying an old house in one of Richmond's many older neighborhoods that are making the transition from shabby and neglected to renovated and restored. I've had old houses on the brain lately and I've been doing a LOT of reading online about caring for older homes and renovations. I stumbled accross this blog, This DecrepitVictorian House. It chronicles the ongoing renovation project of a Richmond couple's once splendid victorian house in the Fairmont neighborhood of Church Hill. I literally spent hours reading through their archives, looking at their photos, and laughing out loud several times. The best way to read it is to dig way back trough the archives and follow their 2 1/2 year adventure from the beginning. Very enjoyable and VERY educational. What I admire most about these people is their bravery at taking on such a huge project with basically zero experience and their ability to see the beautiful house underneath all of the decay, neglect, and hideous alterations that these old houses suffer.

From the Washington Post:

Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use.

Wow. Sounds like a collossal waste of time and money. I guess those pesky standards of probable cause aren't so useless after all. How much manpower and resources should our intelligence community waste on pointless wiretaps that lack enough justification to even rise to the standards demanded by FISA? What legitimate threats to national security will be lost amongst the "noise" of all the useless crap that the NSA has been chasing down under the administration's current (illegal) policy?

Liberated...

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men purportedly seized by police a week ago were found dumped in Baghdad in what appeared to be the latest bout of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the capital, a top Sunni group said Saturday.

For everyone of those dead men there is a family that is devastated. There are friends that will never be the same. Every one of these politically and religiously motivated killings perpetrated (apparently) by people in authority within the new Iraqi government brings that nation one more step closer to out and out civil war.... and our troops are caught right in the middle of that shit. I guess this is just more of that "messy" freedom that Rumsfeld was referring to a couple of years ago.

Grins

Keith Olbermann has a little fun with professional blowhard, Bill O'reilly...again.