I've got a twenty in my wallet

Anybody else want to pitch in?

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Hidden among the porcelain fox hounds and Burberry tablecloths on sale at eBay.be this week was an unusual item: "For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts ... free premium: the king and his court (costs not included)."

The odd ad was posted by one disgruntled Belgian in protest at his country's political crisis which reached a 100-day landmark Tuesday with no end in sight to the squabbling between Flemish and Walloon politicians.

"I wanted to attract attention," said Gerrit Six, the teacher and former journalist who posted the ad. "You almost have to throw rock through a window to get attention for Belgium."

Six placed the advertisement on Saturday, offering free delivery, but pointing out that the country was coming secondhand and that potential buyers would have to take on over $300 billion (euro220 billion) in national debt.

Like many of Belgium's 10 million citizens, Six is exasperated that the power struggle between the county's French- or Dutch-speaking political parties has left Belgium in political limbo since June 10 elections.

Demands for more autonomy from the Dutch-speaking Flemish are resisted by the French-speaking Walloons, making it impossible to form a government coalition and triggering concern the kingdom is on the verge of a breakup.

Six decided to vent his frustration through the Internet ad.

Has anyone tried to sell the White House on eBay?

Never mind, I forgot that it's already sold itself several times over.

Israel did launch an air strike on Syria

Jerusalem, Israel (AHN)-After weeks of refusing to confirm the operation, former Israeli prime minister and Likud opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel launched an air strike against Syria on September 6.

Speaking on Israeli TV, Netanyahu said he gave current prime minister Ehud Olmert his backing on the Syrian raid, but refused to go into detail on the air attack.

"When a prime minister does something that is important in my view and necessary to Israel's security... I give my backing. And here, too, I was a partner in the issue from the start, and I gave my backing" Netanyahu told Channel 1 news.

Although Netanyahu refused to go into details about the Israeli strike, earlier reports speculated that the Israeli F-15 jets targeted a factory in northern Syria where North Korean nuclear material was stored. Other "leaked" reports have said the Sept. 6 attack was to send a message to Damascus to stop supporting the terrorist group Hezbollah, which Israel battled in a brief war last year.

Israel and Syria have technically been at war since peace talks broke down in 2000, with tensions between the two counties rising in recent months. While, Syria insists that peace talks are contingent upon Israel returning the Golan Heights, which it seized in 1967, Israel maintains that Syria first abandon its support for Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist groups before talks can resume.

Update 9/22: Bryan of Why Now? has more on the event and links.

11% approval rating for Congress is understandable

With Habeas Corpus and the Webb Hagel amendments denied a vote (as well as a denial for representation for Washington D.C.), I felt a great flood of despair that as Americans we have lost our way. Only 11% of Americans think Congress is doing anything useful:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

What on earth are the Democrats doing in Congress? Or not doing?

Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof reminds us:

While I agree with Bryan that this was more a bit of drama than is was genuine legislation -- he notes that if you really want to get something attached to a bill, do it to the House appropriations bill and force it to a vote in conference -- it does bring home the point that the Democrats are willing to put up a measure that would in turn measure the Republicans as far as their loyalty to the president is concerned. What this filibuster and the one before it on the reinstatement of habeas corpus make abundantly clear is that as far as the Republicans are concerned, political considerations -- i.e. don't embarrass the president -- take precedence.

There are those who say that the Democrats are wasting valuable time by putting up amendments and proposals that they know will lose. When you have an evenly-split Senate, it seems academic to try to pass something that will not get ten Republicans to go along with you and defeat a filibuster. You fight the fights you know you can win, they say. But you also fight the fights that need fighting, even if you know you will lose. At some point it's going to become breathtakingly clear that the Republicans are on the wrong side of this battle. Until then, the opponents of this tragedy should not rest.

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly points out that the media is avoiding showing the filibusters and the blocking of votes comes from the Republicans:

I see that Republicans have successfully filibustered two more bills today: one to give a House seat to the District of Columbia (57-42) and one to restore habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects (56-43).

[snip]

So, for the record, here are the votes. On the habeas bill, Democrats and Independents voted 50-1 in favor. Republicans voted 42-8 against. On the DC bill,

Democrats and Independents voted 49-1 in favor. Republicans voted 41-8 against. Would it really be so hard for reporters to make it clear exactly who's responsible for blocking these bills?

Meanwhile people are dying violently while we play this painstakingly slow Congressional chess game with the Republicans.

Could you guys hurry the fuck up and end this pointless war?

Brain tests for soldiers

To see if they are faithful to Our Dear Leader?:

Before they leave for Iraq, thousands of troops with the 101st Airborne Division line up at laptop computers to take a test: basic math, matching numbers and symbols, and identifying patterns. They press a button quickly to measure response time.

It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers' brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury -- the signature injury of the Iraq war.

"This allows the Army to be much more proactive," said Lt. Col. Mark McGrail, division surgeon for the 101st. "We don't want to wait until the soldier is getting out of the Army to say, 'But I've had these symptoms.'"

The mandatory brain-function tests are starting with the 101st at Fort Campbell and are expected to spread to other military bases in the next couple of months. Commanders at each base will decide whether to adopt the program.

The tests provide a standard, objective measurement for each soldier's reaction time, their short-term memory and other cognitive skills. That data would be used when the soldiers come home to identify mild brain trauma that can often go unnoticed and untreated.

One veterans group wants to ensure the Army doesn't use the results to deny treatment by claiming that soldiers' problems came from pre-existing conditions.

"We certainly think these tests should not be used to reduce the responsibility that the Army has to treat the soldiers who have served," said Jason Forrester, director of policy for Veterans for America.

Actually it's a good thing to test healthy brains against those that have suffered concussions from IEDs, etc. And luckily a veterans group is watching the military to make sure the data is not misused.

I mean... when has this administration misused personal information for its own benefit?

Paying compensation forever

Canada pays compensation to those Native Americans who suffered in abusive government run schools:

In a move hailed by one native leader as a "turning point in the history of our nation," Canada on Wednesday formalized a landmark compensation deal for an estimated 80,000 former residential school students.

The country's largest-ever class-action settlement came into effect, ending what Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine called a 150-year "journey of tears, hardship and pain — but also of tremendous struggle and accomplishment."

[snip]

Thousands of the former students say they endured sexual, physical and psychological abuse while attending the schools, which were run by churches and funded by the federal government from the 1870s until the mid-1970s.

The federal government-approved agreement will provide at least $1.9 billion to the former students who had attended 130 schools.

[snip]

Still, not all survivors have opted to take the lump sum. A group of about 200 people who endured very serious abuse and trauma have rejected the cash, choosing instead to take the federal government and religious organizations to court for running the institutions.

Many people who have said the financial compensation cannot heal their emotional wounds can seek support from a truth and reconciliation commission, which was set up as part of the settlement agreement process. It allows people to share their experiences in the schools and put them on the record.

So how many years are going to go by before we find ourselves paying compensation for suffering by these people: (found via Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat) :

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.

Detainees the age of 11? Should we ask if anyone running this House of Wisdom can actually speak the native language? How do they verify what is being taught to whom? And who the hell thinks that 'bending them back to our will' is a good thing? Who the hell is in charge of this horror? WTF??

The top ten

Helping you keep track.

I'd be too busy running away to be concerned...

Via Dan of A Blog Named Sue, news that a mysterious illness followed a meteorite strike in Peru:

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.

Dan suggests brain-eating zombies, I think it might be more like this:

AAAAaaaAARRrrrrrrr......

It's September 19th!

Avast, me hearties! It's talk like a pirate day, it tis. ARRrrrrr.

Yeh need a name first of all. Me name is ellroon, Black Lizzie.

And then th' video t' help yeh words:



Pirate cat from I Can Has Cheezeburger?:

Blackwater has been outed

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

US suspends all land travel by US diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq over Blackwater incident.

A semi-rhetorical question: why do we need Blackwater, a 'private security' firm, to provide security for US officials in Iraq when we have the US Army and US Marine Corps? Not to mention the various security agencies connected to the State Department and the paramilitary arms of our intelligence services?

I say it's a rhetorical question because I know most of the answers experts in the field would give. But none of them are very good answers. And many are very, very bad.

John Amato at Crooks and Liars quotes Jeremy Scahill:

Scahill: …instead the administration is building a coalition of corporations. Right now in Iraq, private personnel on the US government payroll outnumber official US troops. There are about 186,000 so-called private contractors operating alongside 165,000 troops. The US military is the junior partner in this coalition.—-This is a shadow war. We’re in the midst right now of a discussion about a surge, and about troop withdrawals, and we hear conflicting messages. But there’s been a surge on for four years of the private sector, in Iraq, this mercenary army that the Bush administration has built up all over that country.

The arrogance of the West, toward Iraq is incredible. This is a civilization that’s been around for thousands and thousands of years. We think that we’re going to somehow bring the solution to Iraq? No, these are people that can very much dictate their own destiny and they should be allowed to do so, and mercenaries need to get out of Iraq immediately.

Scarecrow at Firedoglake:

Larry Johnson at No Quarter notes that Blackwater may not even have or need a formal “permit.” That’s because the notion that the Iraqis have a sovereign government that can decide routine matters, like who has permission to kill people, is just another propaganda myth. Still, al Maliki can cause a fuss about this and make life uncomfortable for Ambassador Crocker.

Aside from the Iraqis’ understandable anger that contractors like Blackwater can kill Iraqis at will with absolutely no criminal liability, the Iraqis must surely be sending a message to the Bush Administration that they’ve had enough being blamed for every mistake Bush and Cheney have made in the invasion and occupation of their country. It’s just one more illusion stripped off an unmitigated string of illusions about how things are just peachy over there.

The internal political problem, however, is even worse for the Bush Administration. What the Blackwater episode has done is reenforce the “betrayal of the truth” [edit] theme that, thanks to Fox News and the Republicans repeating it so often, is taking hold in the public mind. And the betrayal of the whole truth here is precisely on the matters about which Crocker and Petraeus testified.

When Bush sent General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to Congress to claim the surge has been successful enough to allow us to withdraw a few troops soon and more later (but less than the original surge increase), he never asked those he hid behind to discuss the fact that there were two surges, not just one. The first surge was official US combat troops. The second surge was composed of unofficial combat forces outside the Army/Marines — the mercenaries like Blackwater that provide armed security for all the US civilian activities.

Update: The Courage Campaign talks about Blackwater being Mafia-like. Petition to say no to Blackwater in San Diego.

We will never win against such devious terrorists.

We might as well surrender right now...