Politics

California Indian tribes have donated $6.7 million to various recall candidates (original) this year. Most of that’s gone to Bustamante (and he’s had to return (original) most of them). Schwarzenegger has reacted with attack ads (original) directed at the tribal gaming lobby; deeply ironic, considering his anti-immigration stance. Then again, he’s not really anti-immigration; he’s pro European males. It’s ok to immigrate illegally (original) if you’re him.

One of the members of the Iraqi Governing Council was shot today (original). Potential motivations are plentiful. Akila al-Hashimi is a woman, she cooperates with the United States, she is a Shiite, and she was a Ba’athist. There are indications that women aren’t being treated so well in Iraq these days. Certainly cooperating with the United States can be dangerous (original). The Sunnis are worried about Shiite power gains, which has motivated recent killings. And nobody likes the Ba’athists. ...

Here’s a conjunction of stories that bears investigation. Both Chevron and Exxon are bidding for a stake in YukosSibneft (original). YukosSibneft is the biggest oil company in Russia (original), and one of the biggest in the world. Meanwhile, the US and Russia are discussing Russian oil contracts in Iraq. The obvious question is whether or not we’re seeing some quid pro quo here. Would the Kremlin speed up the Yukos/Sibneft merger and expedite the purchase by either Chevron or Exxon if the US agreed to honor Russia’s oil contracts? Would the US find it more worthwhile to make that deal if Chevron was getting a chunk of the revenues via a Russian company? ...

Juan Cole has more to say about the second order effects of getting too close to Pakistan. It’s unclear to me that Pakistan is that close to fundamentalist destabilization, but the effects of such destabilization would be pretty serious, so it behooves us to keep being careful.

Partial credit for this one. “There’s no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties…. We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11 attacks.” — George Bush Well, 50% accuracy on those particular facts is a step up for him. But what’s that imply about his determination to go after Iraq as soon as possible post-9/11? And isn’t it clear that Pakistan had much stronger Al Qaeda ties? So why Iraq first?

More saber-rattling for the benefit of Syria the last few days. The timing is impeccable; nothing will tell Syria we’re serious like making threats at the same time we’re telling Iran to shape up (original). Cause we’ve got all those available troops sitting around doing nothing. In related news, the White House slip of the day (original) comes from Press Secretary Scott McClellan: David Kaye, who’s leading the Iraq survey group, which is — they’re interviewing people, they’re talking to Iraqis, they’re gathering all the intelligence to pull together a complete picture of Iran — of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program and their weapons of mass destruction. ...

Hey, wasn’t Ann Coulter gonna start keeping a blog (original)? The date on that first post in the archives, by the way, is a lie. That sucker’s been there since late June, when they first claimed Ann was about to start blogging.

I love Sundays. You get talking heads on Sundays. Here’s Secretary Rumsfeld on that 87 billion dollars. “On the other hand, if you cast it [$87 billion dollars kplzthx] directly, that the $87 billion is part of the global war on terror, and that it is a lot better to be fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan than it is in the United States, and that the effort is one that has not as its purpose, I think, as you phrased it, rebuilding Iraq. Iraqis are going to have to rebuild Iraq.” ...

The Sunday London Times reported today that the US/UK WMD report is being shelved (original). (Here’s the direct link, but it’s only useful if you live in the UK or want to pay some money.) 1,400 people spent four months scouring Iraq for evidence of WMD, but found nothing. So little did they find that they won’t even publish the report. Now, at the beginning of August, David Kay was talking up his progress. At the time, it was pretty clear (original) that he was setting up the argument that Saddam was maintaining the “capacity” for WMD, rather than having any actual weapons, despite what Bush said before the war (original). ...

Excellent news out of Iraq: the IAEA found the missing uranium. This is not a WMD find; this is uranium that was looted during the war, and which has now been recovered. Congrats and thank you to the UN agency which found the stuff.