My buddy in London turned me on to BDB. It took me a little bit to figure out that it was a he instead of a band, but I find his approach to music and lyrics both subtle and poetic. His soundtrack for "About A Boy" is my favorite, but I also am quite fond of One Plus One is One (which has a rather pointed song entitled "Don't Ask Me, I'm Only The President"). I couldn't find a video for that song, so enjoy All Possibilities, which hopefully you'll find a positive message to end the year on.
We've looked back on 2006 already, now let's look forward to 2007. I've resurrected Jambi the Genie to grant your three wishes. Tell us what you wish for in 2007.
For Salon and NewAmerica Media, the choice was S.R. Siddarth (a.k.a. Macaca). The CBC chose the Canadian soldier. Time chose the blogosphere. MSNBC decided to give us Top Political Moments instead (note the promoting of "real" Republicans and the jabs against Democrats).
Who were your top Newsmakers of the year? For better or worse, who shaped 2006?
I don't know what to think of this. Something tells me this is not the last time we'll hear about the Islamists in Somalia. I find the statement that this is the "end" of terrorism in the country a bit ironic, to say the least.
Not a shot was fired yet the Somali jihad was suddenly over…
Their fortress fell without a shot. After just nine days of clashes in Somalia's hinterland, the Islamists who had vowed to fight to the death abandoned Mogadishu, the city they had governed since June. From having controlled most of southern and central Somalia, they were holed up yesterday in the southern port city of Kismaayo, facing annihilation by Ethiopian troops.
Ali Mohamed Ghedi, Prime Minister in Somalia's transitional government - an irrelevance until last week - rode triumphantly into Mogadishu on Friday, announcing the end of 'terrorism' in the country. Ethiopia, which together with the US has stoked fears about the rise of a terrorist state in the Horn of Africa, was basking in the success of a campaign that was swifter and more successful than anyone had predicted.
'Nobody expected the Islamists to show this little political resilience,' said Matt Bryden, a consultant to the conflict-monitoring body, International Crisis Group. 'They were the first movement to pacify southern Somalia for 16 years, yet they crumbled like a pack of cards.'
Despite US and Ethiopian optimism, it remains unclear whether the military victory represents a new dawn for Somalia or merely a return to anarchy and the beginning of a deadly new insurgency. Read on…
When Nonny sent this in (you can send story tips to the sitemonitor account, and if we use it, we'll give you a hat tip), I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Talk about being unclear on the concept. He tried to insult Muslims for what he admits is a misconception on his part with something that doesn't insult them. Watch, this guy is destined to be appointed by Bush as a Protocol Specialist for the State Department.
A man unhappy with an Islamic association's plans to build a mosque next to his property has staged pig races as a protest during afternoon prayers.
Craig Baker, 46, sold merchandise and grilled sausages Friday for about 100 people who showed up in heavy rain. He insisted he wasn't trying to offend anyone with the pigs, which are forbidden from the Muslim diet.
"I am just defending my rights and my property," Baker said. "They totally disrespected me and my family."
Muslims don't hate pigs, they just don't eat them, said engineer Kamel Fotouh, president of the 500-member Katy Islamic Association in this Houston suburb.
"I don't care if he races, roasts or slaughters pigs," said Yousef Allam, a spokesman for the group.
The dispute began when the association asked Baker to remove his cattle from its newly bought land. The association plans to build a mosque, community center, athletic facilities and a school.
Baker agreed to move his cattle but thought the Muslims also wanted him off the land his family has lived on for more than 100 years.
Earlier this month, Baker conceded that the Muslims probably aren't after his land, but he said he had to go through with the pig races because "I would be like a total idiot if I didn't. I'd be the laughingstock now because I've gone too far."
When President Bush said we were exporting democracy to Iraq, he wasn't kidding. Glenn Greenwald explains the insanity:
President Bush today hailed the critical importance of fair trials and the rule of law . . . . in Iraq:
Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial — the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime.
Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule of law.
The President is certainly right that it is is a good thing that Saddam Hussein was given a trial, represented by lawyers, with an opportunity to contest his guilt, before being deemed to be guilty. That is how civilized countries function, by definition. In fact, allowing people fair trials before treating them as Guilty is one of the handful of defining attributes — one could even say (as the American Founders did) a prerequisite — for countries to avoid tyranny.
That is why it is so reprehensible and inexpressibly tragic that the Bush administration continues to claim — and aggressively exercise — the power to imprison and punish people without even a pretense or fraction of the due process that Saddam Hussein enjoyed. The Bush administration believes that it has the power to imprison whomever it wants, for as long as it wants, without even giving them access to the outside world, let alone "a fair trial." The power which it claims — which it has seized — extends not only to foreign nationals but legal residents and even its own citizens. Read more…
How's that War on Terror going, George? Everyone talks about Iraq, but they seem to forget that we initially started with an attack on the Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Maybe the administration prefers that we forget that, since Afghanistan doesn't appear to be in a better situation since our invasion, does it? The Taliban is strong and wreaking destruction on the citizens; opium crops and sales are up. Have we won hearts and minds yet?
While the world prepares to say goodbye to the year 2006, waiting eagerly to welcome the new year 2007, the people of Afghanistan, the Karzai government and the US and NATO fighters would like to forget their worst year since the ouster of Taliban five years ago.
The year 2006 witnessed the killing of over 3900 people, representing a four-fold increase over the 1000 deaths last year.
I know the young folks despair at the way we moldering relics of the Baby Boom can’t let go of Vietnam. Let me say forthrightly that I know how you feel.
Imagine being a teenager in the mid-1960s and lusting after the Correges-style boots the other girls were wearing, and being told you couldn’t have them because of the bleeping Great Depression, which had been over for 25 bleeping years. And, of course, every Archie-and-Gloria argument between me and my Dad over Vietnam ended with his lecture on Pearl Harbor. Made me crazy. And now I apologize for being just as stuck in the past as my parents were. But on this last day of an old year, there are things that need to be said about replaying old tapes. (Read the rest of this story…)
TPMCafe: It is now clear there were elements within America's government and/or military, working in concert with Iraq's current scarecrow power-holders, who wanted as many people as possible in the world to see video of Saddam being hung.
The Sunday Talking Head line-up is ready for the reading. With two Democratic Presidential hopefuls in this morning's line-up — Edwards and Vilsack — it's officially campaign season again. Boo-yah.
Two journalists to watch in the line-up this morning — Tom DeFrank of the NYDaily News, who always seems to have the inside scoop on all things Cheney and Bush, and Eugene Robinson of the WaPo, who always seems to nail the common sense point of view and ought to be able to cut through Kate O'Beirne's fact free blather with a smile on his face. Could be fun.
Wishing you, and all of us really, some peace and joy in the New Year, and hoping for a whole lot less of this sort of craptastic malarky. (H/T to Digby who, as always, nails it.)
Some of the choices are pretty lame (Paul McCartney's divorce?) and some aren't there at all (Dick Cheney shooting a friend, for example). What are your picks?
The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fictitious account of the ban being defied by the population who proceed to "rock the casbah", causing the King to order jetfighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The song does not mention Iran, nor does it give the specifics of any Islamic nation, and in fact it uses Arabic terms instead of Persian, mentioning casbah, sharif, bedouin, and sheikh. This is typical of the Clash, who often mix up some of the particulars in political songs.
Matthews: President Bush in his last press conference last week said that his idea was for America to go shopping. He literally said that. What do you make of that? As a way to engage the public in our national cause.
Edwards:What planet is he living on? I have absolutely no idea. This is the man who is in charge of this war in Iraq.
Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards has been the political talk in the media since he announced his intentions to run for President on Thursday. I planned to travel to New Hampshire and cover an Edwards event Friday night but I couldn't make it (CTLauryn was having none of daddy going away). To my delight, Edwards was also on Hardball Friday and gave a very detailed explanation for why he's the best qualified Democrat for President….read on
The student of history can detect Gerald Ford's influence on America from Watergate to Iraq, from the presidencies of Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. President for just 29 months, Ford changed the way we live, rescuing the White House from scandal, restoring a measure of confidence in politics and promoting a cadre of aides who have served Bush 43 in important ways. Ford's last two chiefs of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney and ex-Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld-men whose understanding of executive power was shaped by their experience in Ford's White House-have been crucial figures in the Bush years.
Arab pilgrims in Mecca expressed outrage on Saturday that Iraqi authorities had chosen to execute former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on a major religious holiday, saying it was an insult to Muslims.
Sunni Arabs at the haj were shocked at Saddam's hanging which followed his conviction for crimes against humanity against Iraqi Shi'ites.
"His execution on the day of Eid … is an insult to all Muslims," said Jordanian pilgrim Nidal Mohammad Salah. "What happened is not good because as a head of state, he should not be executed."
The Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, marks biblical patriarch Abraham's willingness to kill his son for God. Muslim countries often pardon criminals to mark the feast, and prisoners are rarely executed at that time.
Think FOX will "balance" their coverage with that information? Nope, me neither.
Condoleezza Rice wraps up her first two years as secretary of state with few diplomatic successes to show for her efforts and fewer signs she plans to change course to improve the record.
[..](S)ince she took over as America's top diplomat on January 26, 2005 with an agenda to promote freedom and democracy around the globe, Rice has been shadowed by the failure of that plan on its biggest stage: Iraq.
The violence in Iraq, and the Bush administration's refusal to bring rivals Syria and Iran into efforts to stabilize the country, are widely blamed for the broader failure of US policy in the Middle East — where Lebanon teeters on the brink of civil war and Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts languish.
Elsewhere, Rice's globe-trotting — 37 overseas trips totalling nearly 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) — has yielded little concrete success, with her few diplomatic victories clouded by poor or no follow-up. Read on…
