Now This

This blog is now read by more machines than humans: RSS robots, spam-laying insectopoids, echoes of blog-gathering .edu projects. This essentially is the state of affairs that all human activities w

Cleaning Up the Nation

Austin Bay:

If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at

Rank Materialism

Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some

Fallujah Fonda

Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:

Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.

Acros

John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism

In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:

Palestinian Freefall

"Gunmen" in the Gaza strip have kidnapped four French aid workers. Arafat has banned UN Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen from the territories. The Israeli government is anticipating Arafat's death. There are reports of mutinies quashed within Al-Aqsa. The French are defending Arafat.

Arafat has just been handed the favorable ICJ decision on the barrier, but he can't do anything with it. The ICJ decision may raise Palestinian expectations enough to force some change somewhere, and Arafat is looking a lot like the weakest link right now.

Could Arafat's rule be near its end? A lot is going on. It's going to be a bumpy ride in any case.

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Comments

Arafat's death is the best thing that could happen to the Palestinian people- bar none.

I think that's true medium- and long-term. Short-term, I think there's going to be a lot of chaos. Once Arafat's gone, there isn't going to be a power struggle only within the government like we'd see in any dictatorship whose leader dies, but between the PA and the "NGOs."

If Arafat had submitted himself to elections when his term was up, or if he had stepped aside, Palestinians and the PA could have avoided this. Now, I'm not so sure that the PA's credibility is such that they'd automatically retain power when Arafat dies. The PA may be challenged by Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

That just reinforces the idea that Arafat is more interested in his personal power than he is in Palestinians.

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