Patrick Cockburn on the power politics going on in Iraq.

At the height of the shortage of petrol in Baghdad a month ago people queued in their cars for as long as 18 hours outside petrol stations. One reason for the lack of petrol was that much of it was being stolen by black marketeers.

One day Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the 73-year-old clerical leader of the Iraqi Shiah who has not left his modest house in the holy city of Najaf for a year, sent out an instruction that Shiites should not be involved in the petrol black market.
"It shows the enormous influence of Sistani that you could see his edict having an immediate effect on the black market in petrol," a Shiiite friend told me, though he added ruefully that Sistani's success showed that most of the black market must be controlled by Shiites.

In the last two weeks the Shiites, some 60 per cent of the Iraqi population, have started to express their frustrations on the street. Tens of thousands of people have marched through the centre of Basra and Baghdad to demand fair elections to select a new Iraqi assembly and government. A yellow flag with a Shiite slogan on it now hangs from the top of the monument which replaced the statue of Saddam Hussein famously toppled in Baghdad last year.

It is a critical moment for the US and British venture in Iraq and perhaps their last chance to conclude it without a political disaster.

Short version:

If we insist on the caucus model for elections, and Sistani disses it, we're screwed.
If we insist on the caucus model for elections, and Sistani doesn't dis it, but it doesn't seem legitimate to Iraqis, we're screwed.
If we try to implement direct elections, as Sistani seems to want, we might screw it up, and we'll be screwed.
If we try to implement direct elections, and we somehow manage to succeed, we won't be able to control the outcome like we were planning to with the caucuses, and we might be screwed.

The NYT on Cheney's Davos talk:

Vice President Dick Cheney called Saturday for greater global unity to fight terrorism, halt the spread of illicit weapons and promote democratic trends in the Middle East, in the Bush administration's most significant appeal yet to disaffected allies who opposed the Iraq war.

Okay so far.

The administration's choice of Mr. Cheney to lead its delegation here may seem improbable, given his low profile and hard-line reputation. Mr. Cheney was making only his second international trip in three years as vice president, and remains an enigma to many Europeans and other foreigners. The White House also generally avoids the kinds of issues this conference champions, like globalization and multilateral diplomacy.

Cheney is an "improbable" choice. How about Cheney is an "amusing" choice? That would be liberal bias. How about Cheney as a "laughable" choice? How about "desperate"? Even "ironic" is too strong for the ultra-left New York Times.

And check out that last sentence. The White House "generally avoids" blah blah blah? How about "openly mocks"? How about "regularly derides"? How about "consciously rejected, a decision which isolated the United States from the international community, and more importantly, limited a truly international presence on the ground in Iraq. The resulting lack of international legitimacy may have fueled and amplified the continuing Iraqi insurgency -- meaning that our own international hamhandedness probably, in the end, caused a few more Americans to die in Iraq, for a war they likely neither wanted nor understood."

Making those sorts of connections is far beyond Our Liberal Media.

Read this next bit, which escapes comment from the Times writers:

Responding to a question after his speech, Mr. Cheney sought to dispel perceptions that the United States was empire-building. "If we were a true empire, we would currently preside over a much greater piece of the earth's surface than we do," he said. "That's not the way we operate."

Cheney: "We'd so kick all y'all's asses if we really wanted to. But we don't, so quit fucking bitching."

The next is just thrown in at the end of the piece, and it's worth noting (barely):

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, applauded Mr. Cheney for pressing for democracy in the Arab world, though he said he was disappointed by most of the speech, which he said was notable for its "complete lack of reference to international law."

Some Arab members of the audience said the United States must step in more forcefully to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, if it wanted to hasten the development of democracy in the Middle East.

"Reform is like a seed you plant," said Nadim Y. Muasher, the chairman of the Arab International Hotels Company in Jordan. "If you plant it between two rocks -- Israel and Palestine -- it won't grow."

Finally, look at this thug:



History will place him right next to Boss Tweed and Dick Nixon in the Tammany Hall of Fame section of the history of this country. It won't even take two decades.

[UPDATE: Was the Times even there? [The byline is not Jayson Blair. -ed] From the Post:

Administration officials said the atmosphere in Davos was much warmer than last year, when the United States was on the brink of invading Iraq and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was met with a barrage of complaints. But the reaction to Cheney's 58-minute appearance was tepid. The audience withheld applause during the speech and then clapped for hostile questions about the U.S. government's handling of Arab visitors and its treatment of military detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Call me a press critic, but I find that newsworthy. The Times is just way too lib, etc.]

But then again, if you're reading this, you more than likely know that already.

Calpundit reports on Wal-Mart's sad attempt at manipulating its image.

Remind me to tell you that story about my family, Wal-Mart, and New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen (Cohen?).

So original!

San Francisco is really the sixth borough of New York, the only place, says my pal Alvin, which has the same inflated property values and inflated sense of self-importance. "[Residents of] San Francisco can look down on their surroundings," continues Alvin. "They think LA is for boobs, Seattle is bland, but they love New York. We share the same reverence for Halloween."

How can you resist listening to an interview of Tammy Faye Messner [Bakker] by Terry Gross?

I know life is short, but it ain't that short.

Terri: I'm wondering if you've met gay men who "do" you in their drag show?
Tammy Faye: Oh yes! Many of them! Oh yes! And they do me better than me! [laughs] I love it! I think it's so fun!
Terri: What have you learned about yourself from watching people in drag "do" you?
Tammy Faye: [pause] Ohhhh...nothing new! [laughs] Uh, y'know, mainly, how they dress, it's not what they say or what they do, it's mainly how they dress, and with the long eyelashes, and a lot of hair, and, uh, cute clothes, and lots of jewelry, y'know. [self-satisfied]
Terri: Do you think of yourself as dressing almost like a drag queen, where everything is a bit exaggerated?
Tammy Faye: [pause] Well, I don't think so. No. Uh-uh.

That last question was a world-historical moment.

This is a primer on not-so-hidden media bias that you really should read if you want an accurate picture of what's going on.

Matt Yglesias is someone you should be reading every day.

Yes, thankfully, my downtime has allowed me to completely avoid blogging about the Caucuses or Bush's speech. How wonderful for me!

Regarding Howard Dean's barbaric yawp, here's my favorite response:

Dr Dean's fire and brimstone might have inspired his youth army but it raised questions about him.

Waring Howe Jr, a Democratic National Committee member from South Carolina, said: "He's heading to New Hampshire and those people are serious-minded. They're going to be thinking, 'Who's that cat?"'

WHO DAT CAT?

[UPDATE: You know Dean is hosed when the yawp raises doubts, even for Your Own Mom:

I don't know if you caught Dean's address to his supporters last night but I'm apparently not the only one who thought he looked and sounded really freaky, almost manic. I guess he was caught up in the moment, but it wasn't like he was even the victor though he acted like it!

Very strange!

Dean is doomed.]

Yeah, I'm sick. Flu, feels like. Yuckville. In bed for the last fifteen hours ...

Color me slightly bemused (and secretly delighted) at all of the weird subcultures that are the direct result of easy (and anonymous, if necessary) internet communication. One of Meetup's largest membership groups is, of course, Teen Vampires; their information page specifies who can join:

Meetup with other Vamps, ages 16-19. There are no posers or role players allowed. THIS IS FOR REAL TEEN VAMPIRES.

Fantastic. And a useful introduction to this group, which, to me, provokes the same intoxicating mixture of glee and dread.

Are blogs eligible for Pulitzers? 'Cuz Kos and his folks are really outdoing themselves. Fantastic coverage of what's happening in Iowa on the ground.

In other news, Kevin Drum has posted an indictment of Richard Perle that is a must-read.

So there.