think globally, riot locally.

WAR
* "Nearly six weeks after a landmark election, no new government has formed and people who risked their lives to vote wonder why they did." LINK

* condi did the 'the syrian secretpolice in lebanon is more important, in some ways, than the troops' thing. syria is so toast.

* ""Intelligence in Iran is hard to come by. It is a very closed society. They keep their secrets very well," Stephen J. Hadley told CNN's "Late Edition."" LINK


* ""It may be only a matter of time before al-Qaida or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons," Goss said at the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual hearing on threats, urging approval of the defense budget.
But Sherpao scoffed at such warnings.
"That is simply out of the question," he said of al-Qaida's ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, adding that any al-Qaida leader who has escaped arrest was "more worried about their own safety."" LINK

* apparently only the ugly lebanese want syria to stay LINK


* the anti.c.rice: "(it)is not helpful to have unilateral steps that raise tensions," re taiwan, not iran, re china, not am.

* invasion anniversary on saturday. think globally, riot locally.

* "In the American embassy in Damascus, the view is that the game is finished. Now everyone is trying to understand who won." LINK

* of course, the AP has the 'anti-syria' protest story at #5 in their 'top stories' list. fuck i hate the AP. LINK

* the other thing about the lebanese rallies is that all over the teeve today, the juxtaposition is between todays 'anti' rallies and tuesdays 'pro' rallies, without even mentioning sundays 'pro' rally. presumably the logic is that the sunday rally wasnt on the teeve, and therefore didnt exist. why do they hate the truth?

* " Sgrena describes her captors as seeming "quite a religious group, in continuous prayer over the Koran." But she then tells of the captor that seemed most religious congratulating her on the day of her release by shaking her hand, "a behaviour quite unusual for an Islamic fundamentalist."" indeed - i saw a billmaher segment where they were scoffing at sistani cos his website said it was forbidden to shake hands with a woman. tuckercarlson was guffawing incessantly - until maher suggested that all religions were stupid). again i ask the same question that robertfisk asked wrt margaret hassan - did 'we' kidnap sgrena? "Calipari was killed by a direct shot in the temple." was he the actual target of the 'oneshot, onekill' crew? LINK