Mission Accomplished: Terrorism rises 30%

McClatchy Newspapers reveals that an upcoming terrorism report will show 29% rise in attacks and that:

"...almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The thing is that terrorism needs bombs and thanks to the lack of post-occupational planning the insurgents managed to loot some 250,000 tons of heavy weapons ordinance in the 30 months after the occupation of Iraq in 2003.

As I've said in the past, if the Bush Administration was capable of comprehending that a withdrawal timeline means national reconciliation and an Iraq solution then this problem would be well on its way to be being diffused. Unfortunately when your only message to the people is "Stay the Course" it doesn't leave you any room to be flexible to changing circumstances.

On top of this the recent news that Bush is to receive the Iraq bill on ‘Mission Accomplished’ day and you have a recipe for humiliation of the President in spite of his threat to veto. Make no mistake, this is an act of humiliation meant to punish and embarrass the President in order to save America's and democracy's reputation in front of the world.

There is a Voice in America, it is the voice of democracy and it will not be ignored.

al-Queda: The sweet smell of propaganda

Scott Horton over at Harpers in his article DOD Claim of Capture of “Senior Al-Qaeda Figure” Draws Questions raises some ummm... important questions.

As I read though my list of daily news feeds what I found surprising was the sheer number of stories in the last 24hrs relating to the capture of this al-Qaeda figure or that al-Qaeda group which I thought interesting and no doubt Scott at Harpers thought so too.

As Scott points out, the story regarding the apprehension of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi,"one of al-Qaeda's highest-ranking and experienced senior operatives" happened five months ago?!

These and other related al-Qaeda stories smacks of the Whitehouse attempting to spin the perception of success in an otherwise sea of failure stories circling around it's beseiged administration.

Media: When watchdogs become lapdogs

Rupert Murdoch feels that he and the Washington Post are the embattled ones in the quest to deliver us from the propaganda of lies and hate.

In a speech yesterday at the Milken event he complained about the monolithic attacks on George Bush every day of the year claiming that "the atmosphere is absolutely toxic."

He went on to say that "alleged climate changes" and other problems are far more manageable than is the threat of Islamic terror, which will worsen significantly if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The mantra "Iran must not get nuclear weapons" has been repeated so often now that most people have come to believe that Iran has them, or is getting them. This implication is completely unproven. The tragedy would be that in the end the Bush Administration may goad Iran into a real nuclear-weapons program ably assisted by modern day media Goebels like Murdoch et al.

Rupert also "lamented the difficulties he has had in doing business with China, where, "the fact is, media is pretty much closed." I imagine the Chinese have similar concerns that Chavez had in Venezuela where he canceled Radio Caracas Television's license because of their failure to report accurately on the events of the two-day coup in 2002.

Perhaps the lesson for Rupert is that wearing your politics on your sleeve is not always good for business.