And this is only the beginning....

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Explosions shook Iraq's oil ministry this morning, witnesses said, and thick black smoke poured from the heavily guarded compound.

Fire trucks moved about the ministry and U.S. soldiers kept journalists away.

Imad Ahmed, a retired civil servant who lives near the ministry, said he heard five explosions at about 7:30 a.m. There were no reports of casualties in that attack.

The attack occurred minutes after at least three rockets were fired into the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad. First indications were that there were no casualties among the large number of Americans and other Westerners who live in the Palestine Hotel, but a CNN report said at least two wounded people had been carried from the Sheraton after the attack.

The hotel attack was potentially the most serious strike on a major target involving foreigners in Baghdad since the Oct. 26 suicide bombing of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

On Thursday, a bomber in Kirkuk blew up a pickup packed with explosives alongside the office of a U.S.-allied political party, killing himself and five other people in the latest extension of resistance attacks into northern and southern Iraq.

The blast culminated a bloody 24-hour spate of bombings, assassinations and shootings across Iraq. Assailants blew up a sport-utility vehicle outside the home of a tribal leader in Ramadi, wounding him and killing at least two other people. In Karbala, three schoolboys were killed in a bomb blast. In Basra, a pro-American political leader was abducted and assassinated, his party said in a statement.[emphasis mine]

And let's not forget the 27 people killed yesterday (including the British consul general) and 450 wounded in Istanbul.

And the twin bombings last Saturday at the Istanbul synagogues that killed at least 20 and wounded 300.

How do President Bush and Prime Minister Blair respond?

LONDON, Nov. 20 —A grim President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged defiantly Thursday to continue the fight to combat terror and stabilize Iraq, only hours after two coordinated truck-bomb attacks on British targets in Istanbul. (More here.)

I wish we could force the two of them to duke it out in the streets of Baghdad, mano-a-mano, with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

All four deserve to be imprisoned for the devastation they have wrought throughout the world.

In the predictable aftermath of this absurd "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Iraq, everyday citizens like you and me have absolutely no protection against deplorable acts of vengeance like the ones detailed above.

These bombings were utterly predictable outcomes of the U.S. and British actions. While the exact locations and timings remain unknown until it's too late, their inevitability is as predictable as flipping a switch and turning on a light. Maybe more so.

It's time for the U.S. to treat the peoples of the world--all of them--as fellow human beings. Afford them respect, human rights and share the wealth. If instead, we continue to bully those weaker and poorer than us, terrorism is the logical and predictable outcome.

Judging from the hubris of Bush and Blair's past actions and current response, better get used to it.

It makes me so mad.

Latest bombing story here.

Energy bill blocked....

For the time being.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — Opponents of the energy bill succeeded today in blocking the measure in the Senate, leaving the future of the legislation uncertain.

Fifty-seven senators voted in favor of cutting off debate and moving to a yes-or-no vote on the measure itself. But under Senate rules, 60 votes are required to halt debate, so the bill's backers need to find three more votes to prevail. Forty senators voted to keep the debate going.

Call your senators to thank them if they voted to defeat the bill. (Go here for the vote tally.) Chew them out if they voted "yea."

And while you're at it, tell them to defeat the trojan-horse prescription drug bill. (For more, see Paul Krugman's editorial.

Full story here.

Royal egg on the face....

How many millions of dollars have they spent on security for President Bush's visit to London? Some $1 million?

And all somebody had to do was apply for a palace job under his own name using bogus references.

Not only that, according to Salon the reporter has pulled the same stunt before, getting a job as a security guard to tennis stars at Wimbledon.

A SHOCKING royal security scandal has been exposed by a Mirror reporter working secretly as a footman.

Ryan Parry infiltrated the heart of Buckingham Palace for two months as police and senior staff prepared for the state visit of George Bush.

Parry, who used bogus references to get the job, was still in the Palace lastnight as Mr Bush arrived. He watched unchallenged as the president and his wife Laura were met by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in the Palace garden at around 8pm.

He had a full view from a pitch by the state dining room through a net curtain. Had he been a terrorist hell bent on assassinating the royals or Mr Bush, nothing could have stopped him.

Mirror story here and Salon story here.

No surprise....

I'm seriously considering voting my conscience in the next presidential election. In other words, voting for Dennis Kucinich.

Like many of my radical friends, I'm fed up with settling for second-best in the name of the "lesser of two evils." The Democrat's wimpiness on issues like this one burns me up.

The major Democratic presidential candidates continued to back legal rights for gays but declined to go as far as the Massachusetts Supreme Court and endorse gay marriage.

Only underdog candidates Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun support laws that would allow same-sex couples to wed.

The leading candidates for the nomination oppose gay marriage, but most say gay couples should get all the legal rights of married couples. It may seem like a dubious distinction, but it's the same position taken by the majority of Americans in public opinion polls.

"Dubious distinction?" Didn't the Supreme Court strike down that dubious "separate but equal" distinction in 1953 in Brown v. Board of Education?

Complete story here.

CNN poll....

On gay marriage. Vote here (scroll down).

Wedding bells are going to ring...!

The highest court in Massachusetts ruled today that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry under the state constitution, emphatically stating that the Commonwealth had failed to identify any constitutional reasons why they could not wed.

The ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court stopped short of immediately allowing marriage licenses to be issued to the seven gay couples who sued the state Department of Public Health in 2001 after their requests for marriage licenses were denied.

But the court gave the Legislature six months to comply with its decision.

Naturally, the Religious Right is apoplectic over the decision, promising to pass a state (or federal) constitutional amendment to stop gays from getting marriage rights.

Yet according to the article, the earliest any such amendment could be voted on in Massachusetts would be November 2006. In the interim, gay couples could be granted marriage licenses.

Yay!

Complete story here.

Coward II....

Go here for a rundown on the extreme and expensive security measures to protect Bush while he's in London.

(Thanks to Buzzflash.)

Coward....

GEORGE Bush was last night branded chicken for scrapping his speech to Parliament because he feared being heckled by anti-war MPs.

The US president planned to give a joint address to the Commons and Lords during his state visit to Britain.

[...]

The decision to abandon the speech came as extraordinary security measures costing £19million placed London under a state of virtual siege ahead of Mr Bush's arrival tomorrow.

Roads in Whitehall were closed with concrete blockades. Overhead, a no-fly zone has been established with the RAF on standby to shoot down unidentified planes. All police leave is cancelled.

The only speech Mr Bush, who will stay with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, is now due to give will be to an "invited audience" at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said: "This is yet another slight on this country by the president of the USA.

[...]

The row about the speech came after President Bush set up a showdown with demonstrators by refusing to be apologetic on the Gulf war.

In an interview with the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show, he said they would not "cut and run" from Iraq. He added: "We will not be defeated by the terrorists."

Mr Bush also refused to grant British pleas for mercy for the six Britons held in Guantanamo Bay.

He said: "They will go through a military tribunal at some point, a military tribunal in international accord, or in line with international accords."

Complete story here.

Bush in Britain....

During his visit to the UK, Bush wants to offer his prayers and tell the bereaved families their loved ones did not die in vain.

But Reg Keys, who lost his 20-year-old son Tom in June 2002, said he holds Bush and Tony Blair responsible for his death.

"I don't know how the man (Bush) has the nerve to show his face in his country after costing the lives of 53 British servicemen," said Mr Keys, of Llanuwchllyn, near Bala.

[...]

Mr Keys said other nations had the "backbone" to stand up to waging war on Saddam Hussein.

Mr Keys said: "I haven't had an invitation for an interview with Mr Bush, if I did I would literally walk from Wales to London to meet the man, look him in the eye and tell what I think of him.

"They didn't die for a noble cause, they died for Bush's political reasons, they were just sacrificial lambs."

[...]

"As Tom used to say in his phone calls - 'Dad, you will never westernise this country, they will never be democratic, there are too many tribal factions in this country for it to be a democracy'."

"He felt they were getting nowhere, they would try to train Iraqi police, you couldn't trust them anyway, you could put them in charge of weapon searches and they would just let their friends drive through with weapons.

"He felt it was futile, they were trying to impose Western values on a country which would not be westernised."

Bush's official response to the prospect of meeting anti-war protestors in Britain has been along the lines of "they're lucky to live in a country where people are free to say anything." This echoes--almost verbatim--what he said about protestors in Australia.

As for Bush's own country, I've seen damn few articles in any mainstream media as heartbreakingly critical as this short BBC piece. What does that say about our freedom to "say anything" and have it be heard?

Moreover, good luck getting within a mile of President Bush with any sort of anti-administration protest sign.

Complete story here.