Mugabe may be running one of the less effective dictatorships in the world today, but he does have more support among Zimbabweans today than Bush does among Americans. No, this is not some troll diary arguing that we shouldn't really oppose Mugabe because of all the things he and ZANU-PF did to liberate their country or because he is facing a western imperialist conspiracy against the African people. It's not an argument in favor of Mugabe at all. It's just an attempt to explain why he does still have support in Zimbabwe, who his supporters are, and how well-informed policy could more effectively remove him than the kind of ignorant, "speak loudly but carry a small stick" policy currently favored in Washington could. If you're interested in a little reality based background, read on.

I thought I should bring the latest information to the attention of D-Kos.

The IAEA has just released another report.

The report lists a number of questions about Iran's nuclear programs, for example:

The Agency had also enquired about the reasons for inclusion in the curriculum vitae of an IAP employee of a Taylor-Sedov equation for the evolving radius of a nuclear explosion ball with photos of the 1945 Trinity test. Iran indicated that the IAP scientist had been working on dimensional analysis and had included in his resume references available in open sources. The Agency was not permitted to meet with the individuals relevant to these issues and continues to assess the information provided by Iran.

That last phrase occurs a lot in the report.

More excerpts from the latest IAEA report and commentary below the fold.

Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley famously noted that "No matter whether the country follows the flag or not, the Supreme Court follows the election returns." Well, Mr. Dooley never lived long enough to witness the Florida 2000 election. Furthermore, the public hasn't spoken yet about the detention of the prisoners called "unlawful enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We may hear from them in the next presidential election, though. I do hope this becomes a big issue, because Obama is a Constitutional lawyer by training. McCain is a pilot. He doesn't even seem to realize that certain Constitutional Rights are for citizens, others for all "persons" (human beings) which was the Constitution's term that referred to slaves. More below the fold.

I know he's not in the race for president anymore. As a long time big fan of his I'm happy about that. Joe is the chairperson of the very important Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, one of the most important jobs in the US government, especially now. The Senate of the United States has a special role in foreign policy, approving all treaties and ambassadors, and the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations, whether it is occupied by J. William Fulbright or Jesse Helms, has an important voice in foreign policy.

Joe Biden has that voice now. He is the most qualified American, not just the most qualified Democrat, to use it for good. Let's all encourage him to do it. Specific reasons and suggestions are below the fold. More are welcomed in comments.

Let's all support Joe Biden!

I know he's not in the race for president anymore. As a big fan of his I'm happy about that. Joe is the chairperson of the very important Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, one of the most important jobs in the US government, especially now. The Senate of the United States has a special role in foreign policy, approving all treaties and ambassadors, and the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations, whether it is occupied by J. William Fulbright or Jesse Helms, has an important voice in foreign policy.

Joe Biden has that voice now. He is the most qualified American, not just the most qualified Democrat, to use it for good. Let's all encourage him to do it. Specific reasons and suggestions are below the fold. More are welcomed in comments.

Daniel Pipes used to be an expert on the Middle East. Whether you agreed with him or not you had to respect his opinion and his command of the basic facts about the region. He knew the facts, even if his interpretation didn't agree with yours.

Not any more. Here's what he wrote on October 9 this year:

preemption justified the invasion of Iraq before Iraqis had attacked the United States

[more below]

Yes, there is a shortage of water, that may be alleviated by new discoveries of underground aquifers. But there are always shortages. Scarcity is the essential problem of economics.

As the linked article notes, if the government in Khartoum tries to centralize control of the new water supplies (and as it doesn't note, if it continues to be an Arab nationalist government) further conflict is almost a given, no matter how much water was found.

Crossposted at Impolitically Correct and Securing America.

[previously posted to my blog and to the Clark Community Network]

From The Nation's coverage of the Democratic debate in South Carolina:

There has been this idea going around that the Democrats have a fabulous, unstoppable array of candidates this year. We can't lose! This debate gave the lie to that comforting notion in any number of ways.

But they think it's only economics that will win the debate.

and it needs to get noticed, it needs to get immediate attention, and it should get that attention ahead of Iraq, global warming and every other issue, because if the bees die off, we won't be far behind.

Now if you're like most people you probably think of bees as a nuisance, you probably got stung by one when you were a kid, you might even be allergic to one, and you stay as far away as possible from them. Oh, yes, if you think about it, you remember that honey comes from bees, and honey tastes nice, so maybe bees aren't all bad. Still you don't think about them much, and are content to let them remain someone else's concern. You just don't mess with them.

Here it is, the reality:

Deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars every year, as far as even the lying Bush White House can figure it.

A gross federal debt that amounts to more than a third of annual GNP, with no plan to pay it off. Ever.

Analysis and alternatives on the flip.

Remember how Bush's "tough" policies had (supposedly) finally tamed Colonel Qaddafi? How Bush's invasion of Iraq had convinced Qaddafi to stop terrorism and turn in his WMD, before he got invaded likewise? Well, this is just in from the BBC:

Britain and America now suggest the Libyan leader is a model for others to follow.

Libya - by rejecting terrorism and then, in 2003, surrendering its nuclear and other unconventional weapons research - earned the lifting of sanctions and lost the status of a pariah.

But still Col Gaddafi can be combative.

I'm not going to crosspost this whole diary from the Clark Community Network. For one thing, it's very long. For another, it has lots of images, and I'm not going to post them all to an "approved image hosting service". I'm not going to add the links, either. But I am going to ask any Kossack who's interested in learning more about Islam to visit this blog entry  (and/or its predecessor, Understanding Islam) from the CCN International Affairs series. Here are a few snippets to whet your interest. Feel free to drop on by the Clark Community Network and comment or ask questions about the whole thing. Of course you can comment or ask questions here, too, but you can't read the whole thing unless you move over to the original.

(quotes on the flip)

crossposted at my blog and at the Clark Community Network

I've been listening to the Congressional debate about the Iraq resolution, and I'm listening over and over to Congressional representatives quote the saying "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Somehow no one says anything about a Senate.) They all attribute it to Abraham Lincoln.

I know that most Americans associate the phrase with Lincoln, and for good reason, because he used it to great effect in the Lincoln Douglas debates. But Lincoln was quoting someone else.

One of Lincoln's favorite sources was the Bible, that indispensable basis of English literature. The quote is actually from Jesus, in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 12:

Does anyone else remember when America stood for the rule of law, for justice and fair play? Does anyone else remember when our wartime movies, even the ones that didn't have Nazi villains, even the ones that weren't overt propaganda, featured the kind of values that made the United States the last best hope of earth? Not anymore. Habeas Corpus has been flagrantly abolished without even a pretense of invasion or rebellion to justify it.

And is it offensive. Northern Darfur is where the worst violence seems to have been taking place. The cattle Arab nomads in the south are largely out of the conflict. This is from Timesonline, but it's all over news.google.com if you search for it.

On the day Sudan was telling the United Nations security council this month in New York that it was committed to the search for "lasting peace", the village of Tabre in north Darfur was under attack.

(crossposted at Securing America)

At least two D-Kos diaries (1, 2) about the UN vote on Darfur have already scrolled offscreen. Here are a collection of breaking news stories, contradictory in their analyses of what this means.

I got annoyed when a diary promised a poll on Lebanon's right to exist and then didn't ask any questions about it. I thought I could do better. Let me know how you feel about this important issue.

Remember the push to get a UN force into Darfur, where genocide is happening? Notice how long it is taking to agree on that force, and get approval, and coordinate the logistics? Notice how by the time anything is done, at the rate things are moving, that all the non-Arabs in Darfur will be dead?

This news is just in from the Middle East: