Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Again? McCain flubs yet another Iraq test

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:20:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Completely misreads recent cease-fire; see BobbyRutan's excellent comments from Juan Cole

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Call it a pattern of mischaracterizations. John McCain recently got the facts wrong on Iraq again when he tried to portray Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's disastrous attempt to take on Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr as a success. (You can learn more about Sadr here.) He said this on the campaign trail:

"Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the ceasefire, declared a ceasefire. It wasn't Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a ceasefire."

That's completely misleading. Not only did Sadr come out of the fighting just as strong as he was before (check out Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation), but his people were celebrating what they called a victory over the Prime Minister and, by extension, America:

Certainly Mr al-Maliki’s huge gamble appeared to have failed yesterday. Having vowed to crush Shia militias with a 30,000-strong force in Basra, he ended up suing for peace with the people he had described as "worse than al-Qaeda." Al-Mahdi Army kept its weapons and turf.

Tags: politics, mccain, foreign policy

Pentagon Study: Hack blogs "antithetical to US interests"

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:46:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Will Pentagon hack your blog if it doesn't like your point of view?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Wired.com has uncovered a 2006 study written for the US Special Operations Command that suggests the military should clandestinely recruit or hire prominent bloggers. The report stated, “Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering.” The report also suggested the Pentagon hack blogs that promote messages that are antithetical to US interests. The report went on to say, “Hacking the site and subtly changing the messages and data—merely a few words or phrases—may be sufficient to begin destroying the blogger’s credibility with the audience.”

Tags: politics, military, blogs, internet, freedom

Nearly 60% of US doctors favor national healthcare

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:42:43 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Believe patient care is obstructed by our fragmented, for-profit system

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

In medical news, a new survey shows nearly 60 percent of US doctors said they support a national healthcare plan such as a single-payer system. The survey of 2,000 doctors was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Dr. Ronald Ackermann, the co-author of the study, said, “Across the board, more physicians feel that our fragmented and for-profit insurance system is obstructing good patient care, and a majority now support national insurance as the remedy.”

Tags: healthcare, politics

Why the "success" of the Surge is a myth

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:18:22 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "an absolute lie;" decline in violence brought on by three other factors. This is important - you'll hear it over and over between now and November. But will the MSM pick it up?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

it’s been propagated by the right and accepted by the left in the US that the surge

brought peace to Iraq.

this is just an absolute lie. Violence has subsided somewhat

but it’s not the result of the increase in American troops

It’s the result of a few other factors

First

violence in Iraq was always goal-oriented, it was logical: remove Sunnis from Shia areas, remove Shias from Sunni areas. That’s been virtually completed. There are almost no Sunnis left in Baghdad

violence is down because you have less people to kill

two other factors

The Mahdi Army, Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, basically imposed a freeze

this coincided exactly with a dramatic decrease in violence, which shows just how responsible they were for much of the violence

they’re going to lie low and wait the Americans out

Likewise, the Sunnis

were fighting al-Qaeda, because

al-Qaeda

got out of control, and even Sunnis were feeling like they were living under a reign of terror

Iraq has

become Somalia

warlords controlling different areas

Tags: iraq, surge, politics