Or rather, they don’t respect the continuing presence of an imperialist army in their country.

Bombings Mar Soccer Celebrations in Baghdad [nicely understated title, AP]

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two suicide car bombings struck soccer fans in Baghdad as they were celebrating Iraq’s victory in the Asian Cup semifinal on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 100, officials said.

On the imperialist character of the U.S. occupation, see “”Democracy Promotion” and Resistance: Imperial Delusions” By TARIQ ALI, etc.

I just watched the president speaking about what the Fox News chyron called “the war on terror”, aka the war in Iraq. Fox assured me that “some” are critical of the Iraq policy, but that Bush just gave a strong response. I love how Fox doesn’t just show the speech, they explain why the speech was strong and right. If the speech was unclear, they fix up the argument.

Anyway, the new argument is that “new intelligence” reveals that Al Qaida in Iraq reports to Bin Laden, which is why we have to fight them in Iraq. Another twist on the classic “using the troops as bait” argument, which seems to play with somebody. But I just think its amazing the White House thinks we are so stupid as to accept the new argument for staying in Iraq is that being in Iraq is attracting terrorists there.

Dear Sir,

Despite your insistence that I “get the fuck out of the road” bicycles are actually allowed on the road. Further, if you had taken the time to read the signs on the street you would have noticed that you were driving on a road that is also a bicycle route, and that bicycles are allowed “full use of the lane”. (despite the fact I was using far less than that).

I will assume your mother was killed by bicycle, which led to this hostility. I am sorry for your loss, and sorry to have to bring you the bad news that bikes are allow on roads that by all rights should be reserved for your car.

-Stephen

California cuts mass transit funding. WTF.

Bush now claims that “the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege”.

Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME? This is an actual assertion that the white house is above the law. Not that they have privilege, but that they are actually, literally above the law. Maybe I am tired, but this is freaking me out, I mean, what is the remedy at this point? If the justice department refuses to enforce the law, how exactly can the White House be made accountable?

…is my new favorite band! Check out their song, “cops ain’t shit but hoes and tricks.”

This AP news story does not make the connections, but we should. The privatization of air safety in Brazil, as dictated by neoliberal governance policies, is directly responsible for this crash. Someone should do a study (not just of Brazil, but of all countries that have undergone neoliberal structual adjustment programs prescribed by the World Bank and IMF), a study of how much accidents have increased in frequency since privatization has been implemented in the administration of safety in the transportation, as well as in the workplace. From the AP story:

“It’s been 10 months since the last worst air accident in Brazilian history and now we’ve had an accident worse than that,” said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia. “If you look at what’s happened since September, the answer is nothing.”

“It was a tragedy foretold,” said political commentator Lucia Hippolito. “The government has done nothing because of administrative inefficiency and simple incompetence.”

In my life since college I have learned several things, but the one bugging me right now is this: if you want to live in a really cool city you basically have to kill someone to find an apartment. Right now we live in the foggy hinterlands of san francisco, just ten blocks from the pacific ocean. It looks like we are going to have to move out of our house (that we moved into just back in october) because the landlord wants to sell. So now I am back on the apartment hunt, and my god there is basically nothing out there, unless we didn’t have cats. But we do have cats, and there you are. What is frustrating about the whole process is that there is no solution to the apartment problem other than live in the burbs. For various reasons public policy is designed around encouraging home ownership rather than renting. So if you are a renter (and if you live in SF and don’t make $500k+, you are) there are no tax breaks, no grants, no encouragement for developers. Basically there is no reason to create additional rental units, and nobody has. There are several new projects in the works, which may help eventually, but right now the law of supply and demand means I need to run out the door with a check in hand, drive around the city and throw down $6000 when I see a place we like. And that is the gripe of the day.

Harriet blew off another supoena. As atrios notes, privilege doesn’t mean you don’t have to show up, even if she actually has any privilege in this matter. Of course, contempt of congress means nothing because I doubt that the DoJ would bother to enforce the law.

It’s good for business!

The Dow closed at a record high for the fourth straight session today. Kudos to the rich! Meanwhile, in poor-people-land, Dozens Massacred in Diyala, 80 Dead in Kirkuk Bombings. As Patrick Cockburn writes, “just another day in Iraq.”