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Chris Matthews’ Beatification of Judy Miller (OPEN THREAD TOO!)

By SusanUnPC on July 20, 2007 at 5:16 PM in Current Affairs, Media, Plamegate

Breaking! President Bush will undergo a colonoscopy under anesthesia tomorrow during which time Vice President Cheney will assume control. I can hear the proctologist now: “That’s a rather large polyp! It’s nearly the size of a normal human brain. I am probing the polyp. Its exterior is calcified but the interior appears putrid.”

During July 18′s Hardball, Chris Matthews called on Judith Miller for her expertise on the just-released NIE (read Larry’s assessment instead), on Al Qaeda, and her “report for the Manhattan Institute‘s ‘City Journal’ on how the New York and Los Angeles police departments are working to prevent another terrorist attack.” Matthews began:

Judy, you‘re a hero to the press. You are definitely a woman to be trusted with secrets. And thank you for coming on this program. Let‘s talk about what matters more to people than press shields and all the rest that we care about. I‘m in Los Angeles right now. I‘m up there in a—I was up in a Renaissance Hotel the other night, looking down—actually, when I got up this morning—seeing this whole city, crowded city, below me. Is it safe?

There’s more:

Matthews asked her a number of softball questions about terrorism, which she responded to with stock answers that any twit could come up with — like this:

MILLER: Look, terrorists have to be lucky only once to succeed. The defenders have to be lucky and good all the time.

That’s deep. Then Matthews closed the interview with this:

MATTHEWS: Judy, I believe in you. You‘re great. And by the way, I didn‘t ask you about Scooter Libby because—because the president didn‘t let‘s make it clear what happened here. If he had pardoned the guy, we could talk because there‘d be no further legal action against him. But because he‘s now floating around there in limbo, as the guy with clemency commutation but still appealing his case, you can‘t talk about the case.

MILLER: That‘s right.

MATTHEWS: I completely understand that. I sympathize with you.

MILLER: Thank you, Chris.

MATTHEWS: And I sometimes even sympathize with Scooter Libby.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Anyway, thank you, Judy Miller.

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: Thank you, Chris Matthews.

MATTHEWS: OK.

P.S. Butters tells me that there’s a rumor that Kate Beckinsale may play Judith Miller in a movie. Beckinsale’s fans are having a fierce debate about the ethics of playing a woman who sold the administration’s lies that took us to war.

AND: What’s on YOUR mind?

UPDATE: Uh, judy, it’s touching you’re investigating how police departments in major U.S. cities are preparing for terrorism, but the war you falsely peddled is what is SUCKING UP most of the money to fight terrorism:

Cost of the “war on terror” keeps rising

A new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimates that the price tag could reach $758 billion — most of that is for Iraq.

Read all at Salon.

http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Someone just sent me this limerick:

There once was a man named Vitter
Who vowed that he wasn’t a quitter
But with stories of women
And all of his sinnin’
He knows his career’s in the — oh, nevermind.

Leslie

I’d like to know why Madam Palfrey is being charged with crime[s], while Vitter isn’t. Is Vitter even being investigated for soliciting prostitutes?
Rob

Not even worth a comment…
Leslie

Heh, Susan,
Speaking of hypocrites, who preach pious family values and demand others be penalized for breaking those values, while lying about their own lifestyles and soliciting hookers:

A retired Baptist pastor, conservative lawmaker and head of the Christian Action League was just arrested and charged with paying for sex with a hooker.

YES, there is a God!

http://www.liberaltopia.org RS Janes

Let’s add this to the long list of GOP hypocrites, from Ted Bundy to Ted Haggard, including Beverly Russell, stepfather of Susan Smith who killed her own two children in South Carolina and then lied about it. Surprise, surprise! Beverly was a high-ranking member of the Christian Coalition and the state Republican Party. He also admitted to sexually abusing Susan when she was a teenager. The kicker here is that, in a double-shot of hypocrisy, Newt Gingrich shamelessly tried to blame Smith murdering her kids on the Democrats.

As Matt Hutaff wrote in the aptly-named “Keep It In Your Pants”:

“Vitter and his ilk are just part of a long chain of liars who pimp themselves as moralists for the conservative vote. Does that base feel burned yet by these charlatans and hypocrites? Seems like a man of principle is hard to find these days, and even harder to elect. When people like Vitter aren’t taking obscene campaign contributions, committing adultery, drinking to excess, or a host of other failings, they’re badgering you on the one or two vices you might have. Doesn’t that sting? Can’t you find some real, honest-to-God genuine nutball capable of keeping his pants zipped around a call girl?”
– Matt Hutaff, “Keep It in Your Pants,” The Simon, July 10, 2007.

Just scratch a pious neocon and watch the snakes crawl out. (Those are snakes, aren’t they?)

catherine

Oh, Kate, isn’t there something else you can do?

And Jolie is scheduled to play Ayn Rand. This woman has an incredibly diverse bunch of kids; how can she play that racist sleazebag Rand?

And is Judith Miller trying out for the role of Ann Coulter? She recently said she would “defend to the death his/her right to reveal it” about the person who put the final Harry Potter on the web. So apparently she has no use for copyright law, theft (of the hard copy, which is one possiblity), or confidentiality contracts that one signs while working on specific projects (which is another way the book could have been leaked.)

Can you, briefly, explain why there is “no legal basis” for the Plame/Wilson case, which the judge said yesterday. Is that a comment to take seriously, or is the judge one of Bush’s appointees? Thanks much for your blog and your struggle for the truth.
catherine

Never mind about the Wilson decision. I see you have info farther down the blog. Thanks again
sheerahkahn

Well, at least we now can say we know what is causing the brown patina on Mr. Matthews nose, and it also begs the question will he do anything about it?
http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Just added an update at the end of the post that puts, um, perspective on Judy’s latest journalistic B.S.
Shirin

Chris Matthews is a racist scum bag.
Leslie

I heard Vera Farmiga may be asked to play Plame. Farmiga and Beckinsale are the same age, while Miller is a good deal older than Beckinsale. Read the movie will be told from Miller’s perspective. Let’s guess how that plot will go? Another movie to miss!

Matthews is a hack. Who in the media believes Miller is a hero, besides Matthews? Oh gawd, Miller is writing for the Scaife-funded Manhattan Institute?! [Sourcewatch describes them here.]

http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

Which movie is this? From whose perspective will the story be told?

Leslie

Susan,
Here’s what Editor & Publisher has to say: The movie will be from Judith Miller’s perspective. Rod Lurie will direct it, the film will be titled “Nothing But the Truth.”

Here’s what Editor & Publisher says:

According to Variety sources, the lead is a Washington reporter who outs a CIA agent, then is jailed for refusing to reveal her source. Shooting may begin in October.

If it happens, this would beat to the screen a planned fact-based film based on the memoir being written by Plame.

http://www.liberaltopia.org RS Janes

Perhaps Chris Matthews could be played by Matt Frewer using the same make-up and costume he wore in ‘The Stand.’ Now that would be accuracy.

Centrocitta

MAMA MIA! IT’S SO HOT IN ROME!
taters

This really reads like a Saturday Night Live skit. Isn’t it Darryl(sp?) who does Matthews? Maybe it’s a new guy who does Matthews. Disgusting. Miller was a big piece in the selling of this war.
Somebody needs to put their foot in her aspen…
taters

And tweety – what a shameless twit. I wonder how gaga he would go over Chalabi?
http://houserisingsons.blogspot.com Fade

Here’s what they might find with Bush’s colonoscopy…

http://houserisingsons.blogspot.com/2007/07/be-afraid-be-very-afraid.html
Shirin

Bush having brain surgery! Who would have imagined it!
Montag

Judy Miller reminds me of Chance the Gardener in the movie “Being There.” Chance becomes a celebrity BECAUSE he’s so simplistic and naive that he only makes cryptic comments (he has nothing much more to offer!) leaving his listeners to divine really sophisticated meanings to his little blurbs.

I think Matthews meant she was a hero for going to jail to protect her source, not for her faux reporting. Of course being Matthews he didn’t make that plain.
Patrick Henry

Hmmm…Brain Surgery for Bush..That means they will find a Big Cancerous Mass up there..that looks just like KARL ROVE…
Shirin

It’s EXPLORATORY surgery, Patrick Henry. They are merely HOPING to find the brain there, since they were unable to locate it in the normal place.
taters

Dubya is involved with a fake faith based charity called Proctologists Without Borders.
If they call you, hang up.
Their fundraisng telephone pitch goes, “Hi, this is Dr. Pokey -mon, from Proctologists Without Borders, (said with a thick Jamaican accent) we are in need of funding. We are currently up to our elbows in arrears with back rent, might you assist us?”

Ok, I’m kidding.
So what’s this about the president getting some wisdom teeth pulled at Camp David?
http://www.liberaltopia.org RS Janes

How could anybody trust Matthews’ judgment after that embarrassing performance on May 1, 2003 when he gushed over ‘Mission Accomplished’ Bush like an infatuated school girl for strutting across an aircraft carrier deck in a flight suit? Now he’s pimping for Fred Thompson, using some of the same awful “I give it up for phony Tough Guys” prattle. MSNBC should just rename his show “Tiger Beat with Chrissy M.”

I’m reminded of former GE chairman Jack Walsh gloating about buying off ‘liberals’ Tim Russert and Chris Matthews when he brought them to GE-owned NBC. Obviously, both are still on the payroll.
http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

More details on that movie:

NEW YORK The first major Hollywood film inspired by the Plame/CIA leak case is ready to roll and, surprise, the main focus apparently will not be on a character based on Valerie or Joe Wilson, Bob Novak or even Patrick Fitzgerald — but rather on Judith Miller. And she may be played by Kate Beckinsale, who is quite a few years younger than the real thing.

Edie Falco, fresh from “The Sopranos,” is targeted to play the Bill Keller role as the editor of the jailed female reporter. Matt Damon would be the prosecutor, and up-and-comer Vera Farmiga would play the dashing CIA agent.

News has emerged that Rod Lurie, known for his fine Capitol Hill drama “The Contender,” will direct the film, titled “Nothing But the Truth.”\
(snip)

According to Variety sources, the lead is a Washington reporter who outs a CIA agent, then is jailed for refusing to reveal her source. Shooting may begin in October.

If it happens, this would beat to the screen a planned fact-based film based on the memoir being written by Plame.

– From Editor & Publisher via Cliff Schecter’s blog
Chris Vosburg

Chris Matthews says, with his bare face hanging out: Judy, you‘re a hero to the press. You are definitely a woman to be trusted with secrets. And thank you for coming on this program. Let‘s talk about what matters more to people than press shields and all the rest that we care about. I‘m in Los Angeles right now. I‘m up there in a—I was up in a Renaissance Hotel the other night, looking down—actually, when I got up this morning—seeing this whole city, crowded city, below me. Is it safe?

Believe it or not, he always talks like this. Incredible.
Homer

One of many reasons al-Maliki, al-Hakim, et al have been giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute:

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC, previously known as SCIRI), which is Iraq’s leading Shiite party and a critical component of Prime Minister al-Maliki’s coalition.

He is the sole survivor of eight brothers. During Saddam’s rule Baathists executed six of them. On August 29, 2003, a suicide bomber, possibly linked to the Baathists, blew up his last surviving brother, and predecessor as SCIRI leader, at the shrine of Ali in Najaf. Moqtada al-Sadr,

Hakim’s main rival, comes from Iraq’s other prominent Shiite religious family. Saddam’s Baath regime murdered his father and two brothers in 1999. Earlier, in April 1980, the regime had arrested Moqtada’s father-in-law and the father-in-law’s sister—the Grand Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr and Bint al-Huda.

While the ayatollah watched, the Baath security men raped and killed his sister. They then set fire to the ayatollah’s beard before driving nails into his head.

De-Baathification is an intensely personal issue for Iraq’s two most powerful Shiite political leaders, as it is to hundreds of thousands of their followers who suffered similar atrocities.

(Iraq: The Way to Go, by Peter W. Galbraith, NYRB Volume 54, Number 13 · August 16, 2007)
Shirin

Homer, how do you support your pet theory with the fact that Al Hakim and Al Maliki, Ad Da`wa, and The Party Formerly Known As SCIRI all support Bush’s oil law? You know the law I mean, right? – one that will rob Iraq of sovereignty over its own oil, and put control over most of Iraq’s oil reserves, AND control over its oil trade into the hands of American Big Oil?

Oh yeah, and how about all those Sunnis and Shi`as in Iraq’s make-believe government coming out today with statements insisting that the U.S. can’t leave? And how about the make-believe deputy prime minister telling the U.N. today that if the U.S. pulled out too early it would be “disastrous” for Iraq? And what a coincidence that they are all saying this in perfect chorus with the U.S. occupation generals saying well, September is really too soon to evaluate the surge, maybe November, but more likely December, and General Lynch’s announcement that the “surge” might need to last until this time next year – or even the year after that? WHAT an AMAZING coincidence, no?

Some people might have problems reconciling all that with your claim that those guys are giving Bush and Cheney a one-finger salute – unless, of course, you meant they are giving them a great big thumbs up.

Homer

Shirin,

I bring up the fact that back when Iraq was “more stable”, Baath security men raped and killed a woman, set fire to a man’s beard and drove nails into his head and then you reply with long, angry, and totally unrelated post about the oil law?

Did I touch a nerve?

Hate to read about your Baath buddies in such a manner?

I guess if the political conditions which were conducive to such rapes murders were still existent, which you seem to prefer, none of what we see/hear about in Iraq could be happening, right?

Shirin: NOT well regarded among REAL authorities on Arab matters

It is obvious your time in Iraq is analogous to a lay-over in an airport.

Judging by your lack of publications and citations, it is clear you do not know shit from shinola when it comes to your own country.

Nevertheless, who do you recommend, i.e. besides yourself?

Your position is clear: Saddam Hussein is GOD!! Mwahaha!! Mwahaha!! Mwahaha!!
Homer

Shirin: giving them a great big thumbs up.

With your expertise, show how Al-Maliki, al-Hakim, et al are co-operating with Bush and Cheney for the benefit of the US.

With your expertise, refute the almost universally accepted claim that there has been little or no progress toward the benchmarks.

Shirin

PS As an analyst of Middle East matters Peter Galbraith may be a step or two above Tom Friedman, but he is still more of a media phenomenon than a respected Middle East authority, and is NOT well regarded among REAL authorities on Arab matters.

Homer

Shirin: REAL authorities on Arab matters

Name some.

You never quote them.

In fact, I have never seen you post a link.

Mr.Murder

Matthews was pouring the nsark on.

Mentioning Libby to Miller is a slap in her face. He basically called her out with a compliment.

Matthews is like most of the pundits most of the time. IMO he delivered a gut punch with the Miller appearance. It was quite subtle at times, a twist of the knife.

He’s leaning toward mention of Libya/France.

He knows more than he’s leading to.

France originally got wind of the Niger forgeries and shot the stuff down, one reference I’ve seen released in translation on one of the Burbetta follow-ups mentionsa a reference to ashipment actually destined for Libya at a time not matching the forgery relating Saddam.

In essence, someone with background awareness of Libya, potential contacts even, was most likely the source of this.

Judith Miller helped slime Billy Carter with the help of Michael Ledeen during the Reagan campaign. Ledeen was eventually stripped his clearance of parallel matters for the same issues.

His wife did some Embassy work in the Mediterranean and she was Santorum’s staffer at the time the GOP was inserting phony items to the record in Committee work tasking Intelligence concerns from various Cabinet positions.

The information eventually made its way to the Vatican Embassy. Cheney’s appointed lackey there is resurfacing in news of late, perhaps in other capacaties.

Follow the Money.

Patrick Henry

Mr. Murder..

Thnaks for your always interesting comments..you haver your Trigger Finger on many Issues and you always appear to be on Target..Your “Match Shooting” is World Class..

You are right always..in your Point..Aim..Shoot.. about “Follow the Money..” People in Power ( of all kinds) always Have the Money..want to make the Money..or use thier Money to Buy and Finance
People or resources..Its always about POWER and MONEY first with those guys..Looks to me like we now have “New Money” Competing with Old Money..i/e the Old NWO Money/Cartel out of England competing with the New European Order money that was put together in Rome..
and Created the EU and the Euro…What direction is that group going..?? What are thier apparent intentions..? How will thier Policys affect the future of the United states..The future of Europe..the future of everything beyond the shores of the United states..??

Going Beyond “Follow the Money”…it would be interesting if someone in the Know.. put up a Chart showing all the Big Money Players…how the Money is being Funneled..who is Financing what…and what the Intentions and Objectives..of all the Major players world wide..Russia…China..Eurpoe..Asia..Africa..Latin America..Etc..and what Cartels are forming Alliances and what thier apparent Objectives are..and what are the Projected outcomes in the future for Countrys and regions..

They we all could really “FOLLOW THE MONEY..” and know the EMPIRE BUILDERS..In my opinion..The Rulers of the United states..now have some serious competition..causing the to get caught up in the game..and selling thier Souls..

Its always tempting to go over to the DARK SIDE..or be drawn into the Games of the Dark Side..unless the “FORCE” is with you..

Shirin

Homer, a couple of other things. One of the things that I find fascinating is the way you consistently attempt to support some part of your pet theory with information – sometimes accurate, sometimes not – that is by any logical analysis quite, quite unrelated. Your recent post here is a particularly clear example. So, I wonder, would you be so kind as to explain the logic by which the snippet of first semester Modern Iraqi History that you posted actually relates to your (highly questionable) declaration that Al Hakim and Al Maliki are actually giving the middle finger to Bush and Cheney? ‘Cause maybe there IS a logical connection by which the bit you quoted from Peter Galbraith actually DOES support your assertion, but I just can’t see it.

Also, it is not at all clear how Saddam’s brutal treatment of Muqtada As Sadr’s family figures into your apparent logic that virtually anything you can find to post connected to Al Hakim or Al Maliki supports your theory.

Oh yes, and you also provide a small example of why Peter Galbraith is only respected as an authority on the Arab world by those who know little or nothing about the the Arab world with this: “On August 29, 2003, a suicide bomber, possibly linked to the Baathists, blew up his last surviving brother…“. To claim that a suicide bomber would be linked to the Ba`thists is about as ludicrous the neocon claims of a close alliance between Saddam and bin Laden.

Homer

Shirin: To claim that a suicide bomber would be linked to the Ba`thists

Here’s your chance Shirin.

Reject Galbraith’s claim.

You can refute the Britney Spears of ME academia no?

Judging by the length of your posts, you seems to have an abundance of free time.

I am ready!

Montag

Shirin,
EVERYONE’S a step or two above Thomas Friedman, because he has the I.Q. of a small appliance bulb. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but how about his “McDonald’s Doctrine,” whereby any two countries that both have McDonald’s fast food joints in them will never go to war? AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!
Shirin

LOOOOOOL! Montag, you are sooo right! In fact, even Sue is a step or two above that pompous, self-important, overinflated empty bad of hot gaseous substance. Thomas Friedman is a parody of himself.
Shirin

Perhaps this will clarify:

Peter Galbraith is to Arab World authority as Britney Spears is to musician.

Thomas Friedman is to intellectual as Paris Hilton is to musician*.

*Paris Hilton has actually released one CD and is reportedly working on a second one.

Homer

Shirin: Peter Galbraith is to Arab World authority as Britney Spears is to musician. Thomas Friedman is to intellectual as Paris Hilton is to musician*.
*Paris Hilton has actually released one CD and is reportedly working on a second one.

Montag: EVERYONE’S a step or two above Thomas Friedman

Just curious, pls show how you are two steps above Thomas Friedman.

What have you published?

Cee

WTF? Miller a hero? Perhaps Matthews is afraid of receiving an envelop of more malaria carrying skeeters!

her “report for the Manhattan Institute‘s ‘City Journal’ on how the New York and Los Angeles police departments are working to prevent another terrorist attack

I just read a little rumor about Chertoff talking about a dirty bomb attack on the West Coast. What do and Miller know or are planning?
Montag

Homer,
Just because Hitler published MEIN KAMPF doesn’t make him an intellectual, any more than Thomas Friedman’s published ravings make him an expert on anything.

Judy Miller is the Typhoid Mary of journalism. This was a woman who had to be quarantined for life because she insisted on working as a cook while being a typhoid carrier, despite not displaying any symptoms. Even after killing some of her employers she simply refused to understand that what she was doing was morally wrong, in that she never had to suffer the consequences of her willful disregard for public health while others DID.

Homer

Montag,

What are you babbling about?

Resorting to metaphor?

You wrote “EVERYONE’S a step or two above Thomas Friedman”.

So, I would like to know how you are a `step or two above Thomas Friedman’ and what have you published.

Have you ever refuted Friedman, Galbraith, or any ME writer by way of a publication?

I am just curious.

BTW: I think Miller and Friedman should be sent to Iraq where they can report from the Red Zone.

mudkitty

Miller went to jail to protect her source(s.) But her source made her culpable in a crime…by not reporting that a crime had occurred.

If a reporter witness a murder, than by definition, that reporter can’t be just a reporter anymore, much less an objective one. Miller doesn’t understand, or want to understand, that she was a witness to, and a participant of a crime. That’s why she needed to testify truthfully. The issue of protecting a source is not universal or absolute.
Shirin

Homer, I see you have resorted to your usual tactic of trying to make it all about me personally when I pose questions you cannot answer. It is not about me, Homer. It is not about the real me, and it is not about the imaginary me you have conveniently invented to try to use as a club (hint: you can flail the air all you want with your imaginary club, but you will never land any blows with it because……….it is not real, Homer. It exists only in your mind).

Oh yes, and Homer, when you make an assertion, it is up to you to support your assertion with actual facts that actually relate to your assertion.

Now, let me simplify things for you. Here are the questions:

1. How does Galbraith’s little stories, which can all be found in Chapter one of Modern Iraqi History for Dummies, support your assertion that “al-Maliki, al-Hakim, et al have been giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute”? Those well-known stories of brutal repression appear quite unrelated to the claim you apparently pulled them up to support, and unless you can present some logical, rational process that connects them such that the historical stories actually support the “one finger salute” theory, this looks like just another instance of your “when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” syndrome.

2. How do you reconcile the beloved theory you have repeated here so many times, with the following facts:

- Al Hakim, Al Maliki, The Party Formerly Known As SCIRI, and Ad Da`wa support Bush’s onerous oil law both in the make-believe cabinet and in the make-believe parliament.

- This week members of Al Maliki’s make believe cabinet and parliament are happily singing the same song in perfect harmony with Bush, Cheney, and their generals. All together are insisting that it is “just too soon” for the Americans to leave, that their departure would be “a disaster”, that we really MUST give the “surge” more time – possibly even a couple of more years – to “work”.

Try addressing these questions, Homer, this time without obfuscating and without throwing red herrings all over the place.

Homer

Shirin: Homer, I see you have resorted to your usual tactic of trying to make it all about me personally when I pose questions you cannot answer.

Again, “I bring up the fact that back when Iraq was “more stable”, Baath security men raped and killed a woman, set fire to a man’s beard and drove nails into his head and then you reply with long, angry, and totally unrelated post about the oil law?”

Again, did I touch a nerve?

Shirin: support Bush’s onerous oil law

Voicing tepid support and doing nothing about the oil law is a helluva lot different than actually carrying out the law and ripping off the Iraqi people.

There is a difference btw talk and action.

So do tell Shirin: How EXACTLY is the Iraqi Parliament enacting the Bush admin’s directives?

Demonstrate wih proof EXACTLY how al-Maliki, et al are giving the Bush admin the thumbs up and a high five?

The oil revenue–sharing law has been stuck and is non-binding practically speaking.

Provincial elections have not been held.

The Iraqi constitution is still un-revised.

Former Baathists are still excluded.

Reconstruction funds are not being failry distributed.

And you say al-Maliki, et al are high fiving the Bush admin?

ROTFLAMOL!!!

Shirin

There you go again, Homer, obfuscating, avoiding, using more of your apparently endless supply of red herrings, and, of course, trying to make it about me (mainly your made-up fantasy me, of course).

And when you DO actually address the substance of the question, Homer, your case is, to be as kind as possible, lame and weak in the extreme.

Voicing even “tepid” support is a far cry from “giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute”, and to make your case even weaker, the support from Al Hakim, Al Maliki, and The Party Formerly Known as SCIRI is not what most people would call tepid.

What is preventing the oil law from passing is not “tepid” support from Al Hakim, Al Maliki et al., but massive opposition to it OUTSIDE the make-believe cabinet, and OUTSIDE of Al Hakim, Al Maliki, and The Party Formerly Know As SCIRI. In the parliament the only significant support it has is from Al Hakim and Maliki’s people. Even the Kurds, the closest thing we have to quislings, are far from enthusiastic about it. In fact, you could say with fair accuracy that Al Hakim, Al Maliki et al. are pretty much the only significant players who are NOT expressing at least some opposition to it.

Outside the make-believe government the opposition is very, very strong, and growing, and is largely led by the oil workers themselves, as well as other labour unions. So, it is not Al Hakim, Al Maliki et al. “giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute” that is keeping the oil law from passing – quite the contrary in fact.

As for the other “benchmarks”, the lack of “progress” is also due to factors other than Al Hakim, Al Maliki et al. “giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute”. There are other things going on there, including the make-believe government’s complete lack of any real power to do anything that has any real effect. And. of course, Maliki is, as always, desperately trying to prevent Bush from firing him from his job, while at the same time not challenging Al Hakim, Talibani, and others regarding little items like their militias, the ethnic cleansing they are conducting, their use of torture, their repression of dissent – stuff like that.

Of course, you would know all this if you were keeping up with the Arabic, and in particular the Iraqi news media, but that information is also available from English language sources. Maybe instead of copying and pasting Galbraith’s well-known, but irrelevant recitations of well-known events from Modern Iraqi History for Dummies you ought to seek out the kinds of sources that will tell you what is really going on right now.

Oh yes – and you still have not explained how the well-known events recounted in your Galbraith copy/paste support your assertion that al-Maliki, al-Hakim, et al have been giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute.

Shirin

Homer,

This just in: Iraqi make-believe prime minister, Nouri Al Maliki has urged the Iraqi make-believe parliament not to take off the full month of August, but to stay in Baghdad and pass the laws the United States has been pressing for, including the “oil revenue sharing” law.

How do you square that with your contention that Al Hakim and Al Maliki et al. – how did you put it? – “have been giving Bush and Cheney a highly raised one fingered salute”?
Homer

Shirin

To think that any Iraqi is going to fill the coffers of US oil companies and the US, i.e. Israel’s number one buddy in the ME, is LAUGHABLY ABSURD.

Even if it passes, it will not be binding.

Like your posts, the ‘support’ is bullshit, a red herring to further drain the beast of blood and treasure.

Al-Maliki et al are killing the US with a death by a thousand cuts.

Unfortunately for the US, their position is solid and sound.

Al-Maliki was pissed on by Sect Cheney long ago.

The US did nothing when your buddy SH was gassing and raping and Al-Maliki pleaded for help.

They will never be an Allawi-like stooge for the USA.

You are un-informed to think so.

HINT: Al-Dawa came off the US terrorist list recently. It has had unpunished American blood on its hands for a long long time.

10 Pro-Iranian Shiites Held in Kuwait Bombings, The Washington Post December 19, 1983

Kuwait announced yesterday the arrest of 10 Shiite Moslems with ties to Iran in terrorist bombings that killed four people and wounded 66 last Monday at the U.S. Embassy and other targets.

“All 10 have admitted involvement in the incidents as well as participating in planning the blasts,” Abdul Aziz Hussein, minister of state for Cabinet affairs, told reporters after a Cabinet session, United Press International reported.

Hussein said the seven Iraqis and three Lebanese were members of the Al Dawa party, a radical Iraqi Shiite Moslem group with close ties to Iran.

Message From Iran Triggered Bombing Spree In Kuwait, The Washington Post, February 3, 1984

Al Dawa, for example, is no household name in the United States.

But it is a name important to this story.

It leads us back to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the ruling figure in Iran; to Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the militant Lebanese Shiite leader who has been implicated–despite his denials–in the Marine and French bombings in Beirut; to Hussein Musawi, Fadlallah’s strong-arm lieutenant; to the Hakim brothers in Iran and their connections to the Middle East terrorism industry

Bush warns Iraq on chemical arms U.S. fears use of weapons against rebels. Chicago Tribune. March 10, 1991 [snip]

Jawad al-Maliki of the Dawa Party said in Damascus, Syria, that mustard gas was used against protesters in al-Haleh, al-Kifil, Najaf and some areas of Basra, in southeastern Iraq.

Precisely what is going on inside Iraq is difficult to determine since
Western reporters have been expelled. Most information is coming from
refugees and opposition leaders in Iran and Syria.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheneydescribed the situation as “volatile” but said it appears Hussein will be able to keep the unrest in check for now. The Iraqi leader is using his loyal Republican Guard to quell the
rebellion.

Iran gives al-Maliki’s government an aircraft as a gift

BAGHDAD: A jetliner donated to the Iraqi government by Iran landed at Baghdad airport on Saturday, four months after it was first promised by Tehran, according to government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

[snip]

“The Iraqi government would like to thank the Islamic government of Iran for this present, which we hope will contribute to the development of relations and common interests between the two nations,” al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press.

[snip]

The gift underlines the warmth of ties between the al-Maliki government and Tehran since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, who fought a ruinous, eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s.
Shirin

Oh, my goodness Homer! You just made the fatal error of trying to relate all of this to Israel. You are busted, buddy! I don’t know, or really care, where in your being that Israel reference came from, and it really doesn’t matter. You have just displayed beyond any scintilla of a doubt that you are making stuff up as you go along with no concept of how Iraqis in particular, and Arabs in general view their interests.
Shirin

PS Homer, your ability to copy and past Peter Galbraith’s recitations from Modern Iraqi History for Dummies, and to Google, copy and paste what some of us have been imbibing with our morning tea every day for years is quite impressive. It does nothing, however, to make your case unless you can actually provide a logical connection, which you have so far not even attempted to do.

But, of course, all that is moot now that you have revealed your belief that everything the Arabs do is really about Israel.

Homer

Shirin,

Like Bush, you deal with things that might occur in the future.

Delusionally, you point to al-Maliki’s perfunctory and tepid support of the `oil law’ and the summer recess as proof that al-Maliki et al are giving the Bush admin the thumbs up and a high five.

Until the`oil law’ has been passed and dollars are flowing into the coffers of the US oil companies and the US, and until the Iraqi Parliament has actually cut short or forgone their vacation, you HAVE nothing to demonstrate that al-Maliki et al are giving the Bush admin the thumbs up and a high five.

HINT: Look into the past Shirin and enlist what legislative measures prove that al-Maliki et al are giving the Bush admin the thumbs up and a high five.

Please, do something.

In the past, I’ve learned a thing or two from you.

But now it seems more than ever that you are truly clueless about the nature and the history of al-Dawa, SCIRI, al-Hakim, al-Maliki, et al., despite your preposterous claim of mulling over it over your morning tea every day for years.

Here’s an intersting pov:

“MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because, to be honest, it’s not really
in the interests of the main power players here in Iraq to meet them.

“These are American agendas, American benchmarks. These aren’t the
benchmarks that the factions within the Iraqi government really care
about. What they care about is getting their hands on their own security
forces and setting them loose as they see fit.

“And, don’t forget, a lot of these benchmarks strike at the deepest,
most heartfelt divisions politically and in terms of the sectarian
divide that exist in this country. None of them are easy fixes. And in
none of them is it really in the interests of those who hold power to
meet them. They just want to keep their power — Anderson.

“COOPER: So, essentially, you’re saying they don’t see themselves as
part of a larger Iraq. They don’t see themselves as a ruling of — all
the people of Iraq, as we think about a democracy. They still see
themselves as factions, and they are trying to hold on to turf and
power.

“WARE: Yes, absolutely. I mean, the concept of a national unity
government, as the Bush administration calls this thing that they
describe as the Iraqi government, is laughed at, even by some of the
senior members of this government itself.”

mudkitty

Again missing the point. Deliberately. Hence, the above comment is moot.
Montag

For those with a masochistic bent, here is Judy Miller’s interview with Shimon Peres, the new Israeli ceremonial President. Gosh, no propaganda here! I like the bit at the end where she says most Israeli leaders are terribly old. Something’s wrong with that country–I believe they call it a “gerontocracy.”

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ah6sxjndq9qq_361fr9449