1. Dennis Perrin has something he’d like to say to nice Democrats:
I hope that my liblogging buddies are finally waking up to this dreadful reality [of Iraq], but just in case they’re still dreaming sweet dreams about all the wonderful things the Dems are going to deliver in ’07, and especially in ’08, allow me to raise my voice for a moment.
ATTENTION MULES! THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS A PARTY OF WAR, DESTRUCTION AND GREED! THEY WANT TO USE YOUR KIDS AS FODDER FOR THEIR BLOODSHED! AND THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT! OBAMA WILL NOT SAVE YOU! SO WAKE THE FUCK UP, GET OFF YOUR ASS, AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Sorry about that. Generally, I’m an easy going guy. But with a ten-year-old son, soon to turn 11, to think about, and watching these criminals plan for more chaos and agony, expecting my boy to sign on, I tend to come unhinged. And I trust this will become worse as the years drag on.
2. The Nation has published a fantastic article by Mohamed Bazzi about the usually-overlooked ways the civil conflict in Lebanon is based in class (via Sam Husseini):
Ever since Hezbollah and its allies began an open-ended protest against the US-backed government on December 1, Beirut’s gilded downtown–built for wealthy Lebanese and foreign tourists–has become more authentically Lebanese. Where Persian Gulf sheiks once ate sushi, families now sit in abandoned parking lots, having impromptu picnics, the smell of kebabs cooked over coals wafting through the air. Young men lounge on plastic chairs, smoking apple-scented water pipes, and occasionally break out into debke, the Lebanese national dance.
3. I’ve mentioned previously the whistleblowing WMD testimony of Carne Ross, former First Secretary in Britain’s Mission to the UN. But also fascinating is a piece he wrote last year for the Financial Times; it’s one of the most sensitive and intelligent accounts I’ve ever seen of how governments deceive themselves and others.