Structural Racism Goes Global

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the sitting President of Sudan, who is accused of directing and authorizing the genocide in Darfur. Under the concept of "universal jurisdiction," the ICC asserts the right to arrest and imprison those who played a role in crimes against humanity. Al-Bashir responded by tossing out all aid groups:

NAIROBI, March 4 -- Reacting swiftly to the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the government of Sudan on Wednesday expelled at least 10 foreign aid groups that provide food, water, medical care and other assistance to more than a million displaced people in the western Darfur region, according to U.N. officials and aid workers.

The groups include Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, CARE International and others that collectively handle 60 percent of humanitarian assistance in Darfur, where the largest relief effort in the world has reversed a dangerous rise in the level of malnutrition and disease among people stranded in refugee camps. Some groups were given 24 hours to leave; others were told that the safety of their staffs could no longer be guaranteed.

"It's alarming," said a U.N. official in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, who was not authorized to speak publicly because of security concerns. "The humanitarian impact of this is massive."

This will only increase the pressure on the international community to put additional sanctions on the Sudan. Hopefully soon al-Bashir will find justice.

However, there is a data point coming out of this arrest warrant that is quite interesting.

Sudanese President Omar al Bashir is the 12th and highest profile suspect sought by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes — all of them Africans.

The seven-year-old court previously opened cases against a Sudanese official and a militia leader for crimes in the Darfur region, and against rebel leaders accused in long-running conflicts in Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

The world's only standing war crimes court, based at The Hague, has been criticized for pursuing only African suspects to this point. Rwandan President Paul Kagame — whose central African nation isn't a party to the court — has described it as a new form of Western imperialism.

Not to hold harmless the actions of any of the Africans that the ICC is seeking to arrest - the continent often succumbs to dictatorships who commit all manner of crimes against their own people. But in the domestic arena, this is called "structural racism." Suspects are sought in the same communities, and the arresting officers have the same biases. The result is not overtly racist, but self-fulfilling. It's not like there aren't horrific crimes in Europe, or Asia, or around the world. The ICC arrest warrant is good news for those who seek justice in Darfur, but they ought to take a critical look at themselves.

...I don't want to minimize the crimes of al-Bashir, by the way. Here's a chilling description from a Sudanese soldier about how he was taught to kill and rape. It's sickening.

World Report

Quickly, let's turn off the TV and get some international news:

• In a striking GAO report, severe problems are seen with the foreign aid payments from the US to Pakistan. There is simply no accountability or proof that the funds are going to their proscribed ends of counterterrorism, and the program is scarred with massive fraud.

The Pentagon paid about $20 million for army road construction and $15 million to build bunkers in Pakistan, but there is no evidence that the roads or bunkers were ever constructed, the Government Accountability Office reported. Islamabad also billed Washington $200 million for an air defense radar system that may not have met a U.S. condition: that reimbursement cover combat or logistical costs supporting U.S. military operations against terrorism beyond what a country would spend on its own needs.

"It seems as though the Pakistani military went on a spending spree with American taxpayers' wallets and no one bothered to investigate the charges," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "How hard would it have been to confirm that a road we paid $15 million for was ever built? It is appalling that the Defense Department did not send any embassy officials working in Pakistan to verify these enormous costs." Washington should "stop pouring money into a black hole," Harkin said.

Our ally in the war on terror, ladies and gentlemen. Meanwhile Afghanistan is accusing Pakistani intelligence of playing a role in the assassination attempt of Hamid Karzai. Robbing the US Treasury blind WHILE providing material support for terrorism; that's awesome!

• If you read the headlines of news accounts, you'd know that rockets from Gaza broke the truce between Hamas and Israel. If you bothered to read the actual story, you'd see that Israel targeted and killed Islamic Jihad leaders in violation of the truce, and the rockets were in response. Hard to figure out which part of the scale the media has their thumbs on, isn't it?

• Bush must be getting real antsy about his precious status of forces agreement in Iraq, he's getting personally involved in the meetings. Speaking of Bush, this isn't really part of the world report, but since it involves him insulting an entire nation of people, I thought I'd mention it.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

One of the real sources of relief after January 2009 will be less embarrassment at the thought of the elected leader of my country.

• Darfur is a true mess, worse off now than it was 18 months ago after a fragile cease-fire agreement, and attacks on villages in the region have begun anew. This is a failure of the international community.

I was going to add a bit about North Korea and Iran, but I think those deserve more attention than a digest format.

World Report

Actually, quite a few things have been brewing on the world stage over the past couple days, and so, you know, here they are:

• I've heard this Osama bin Laden is dead canard several times, but not from a Taliban commander in Pakistan. Of course, there's not really any accountability for this, and no telling whether or not it's true.

• Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel, may be bumped right out of the government after new allegations that he took over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in bribes from an American businessman over fifteen years, much of which funded his personal lifestyle. Ehud Barak and others have called upon Olmert to resign. This could completely upset any hope for peace talks and change the complexion of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Major news, stay tuned.

• The Presidential candidates are saying all the right things on Darfur. One of the three isn't exactly trustworthy, but hopefully the next Presidency will reflect a change in policy.



• After an IAEA report criticizing Iranian behavior and potential concealment of their nuclear weapons program, the Iranians have threatened to limit their access even further, which was the whole point of the IAEA report. This threat came from Ali Larijani, the former top nuclear negotiator who is now the new Speaker of the Parliament, which is an odd place for a major critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if you believe that he's a dictator and not merely a functionary in a government ruled by the Supreme Leader. With any luck, Bush will leave in favor of Obama in January 2009, and Ahmadinejad, who is unpopular due to economic difficulties, will be voted out the same year, and we'll have a chance for a saner policy between both nations.

• Good news in Nepal, where the monarchy has been abolished, to a massive celebration in the world's most recent secular republic. Freedom is on the march - especially if you don't intervene in sovereign countries and demand it.

• Bad news elsewhere. Somalia is as close to a state of total anarchy as there is in the world, and when you add global economic recession and a world food crisis to that mix, you could have a total collapse with mass death. There's almost no hope there.

• There's been a spasm of violence against immigrants in South Africa, leading the government to consider refugee camps for those displaced by rioting. I hope this isn't a sign that global hate is on the rise.

• Oh, and there's Iraq. The Sunni bloc has suspended talks to re-enter the government, and Muqtada al-Sadr has very cannily called for the Iraqi people to vote on any security arrangement between Iraq and the United States, burnishing his carefully cultivated image as a nationalist man of the people.

That's a lot of stuff!

T-Minus One for San Francisco's Torch Ceremony

San Francisco authorities are justifiably nervous about providing a platform for Chinese propaganda at tomorrow's Olympic torch relay. The number and variety of protests are great and go beyond protesting the situation in Tibet. The Falun Gong will call for religious freedom inside China. Human Rights Watch seeks to call attention to China's deplorable human rights record. The San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition will be massing to call for China's end to its material support for genocide in the Sudan (you can hear Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's talking about this here). There are all sorts of reasons to be concerned for China's ascension to this position of prestige by hosting the Olympics. And recent events along the global parade route, particularly from the pro-Tibet activists, are having a real impact.

As thousands of pro-Tibet protesters cut short the Olympic torch relay Monday in Paris, a new Zogby Interactive poll finds 70% of likely voters believe the International Olympic Committee was wrong to award this year’s summer Olympic Games to China because of its poor record on human rights. Dissatisfaction with the IOC’s choice is strong across the political spectrum, with 70% of Democrats and Republicans, and 68% of political independents who said they disagree with the decision to have China host the summer games. A Zogby Interactive poll conducted in May 2007 found 44% had a favorable opinion of the IOC’s decision to award the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to China, while 39% viewed the decision unfavorably.

So San Francisco ought to be concerned with the scope and force of protests tomorrow. They actually should acknowledge them by canceling the parade. What does it achieve? Will San Francisco cover themselves in glory tomorrow? The protesters will show that the entire city is a free speech zone, and they will show the importance and power of activism. But the city will just be giving a platform to the Chinese to sanitize their image and whitewash the deplorable spots in their record. There's no reason for this and the potential for some ugly outcomes is growing.

Authorities in San Francisco, which on Wednesday will host the only North American leg of the relay, said they had closely watched events in London on Sunday and in Paris.

"We have a lot of concerns," said Sgt. Neville Gittens, a San Francisco police spokesman. "I don't want to identify them, but this is not a contained route security-wise, and there are lots of opportunities for trouble. We're watching what's going on very closely and will make changes to our plans as we figure them out."

Mayor Gavin Newsom met with Chinese officials in San Francisco on Monday to review security measures, which include requiring all rank-and-file police officers to report to work Wednesday. Meanwhile, at least two neighboring police departments have been asked to provide reinforcements, the California Highway Patrol will be on hand and the FBI is on standby, officials said.

I'm not sanguine about the prospects of this relay tomorrow. London and Paris were just a prelude.

World Report

Every so often I look at the world, and make a report. This is that report.

• Zimbabwe is the biggest hell hole on Earth. Inflation is over 100,000% annually. You actually need a wheelbarrow to carry around money. And in a country dependent on international food aid, the ruling party of Robert Mugabe is using food aid as a weapon to force the public to vote for them. "No ZANU Card, No Mealie Meal," as Hilzoy puts it. I'm sickened. Among the many insufferable dictators around the globe, Mugabe may be the worst, and I would have little problem with a humanitarian intervention to force equal distribution of food aid.

• Speaking of dictators and Africa, a leader of the Janjaweed militia is finally admitting what everyone already knew, that he received his orders to rape and murder the Darfurians from the Sudanese government in Khartoum, as well as heavy weaponry. Even though this has been assumed, it's the first time a Janjaweed leader has gone public.

• So desperate to reach any kind of fig leaf of a deal in the Middle East that would signify something resembling a "legacy," the Bush Administration is now talking about allowing Hamas to participate in talks with Israel, using Egypt as an intermediary. This is mainly about negotiating a cease-fire, not some overarching agreement on Palestine. But the softening stance is probably a good thing in the long run.

• Speaking of Bush toning down his arrogant foreign policy, apparently they've discovered that nobody really likes Pervez Musharraf, and are stopping their praise of him, instead trying to cozy up to the opposition parties. Might be a little late for that, but of course we rarely learn out foreign policy lessons.

• So I guess a substantial number of our troops (at least a dozen) have been subject to accidental death by electrocution in Iraq, and Henry Waxman wants to get to the bottom of it. Support the troops, I believe, is the phrase. Man, they must be living in a pit over there, paid for by our tax dollars (funneled to unfeeeling corporations who do shoddy work, that is).

• The Islamists in Somalia, though defeated in last year's war, have not been vanquished, and in fact they beheaded three Somali soldiers, prompting the UN to raise alarms and plead for peace talks. Even the proxy wars Bush fights and wins are never actually won.

• There's some additional news from Tibet, where the authorities have arrested dozens inside the autonomous region and have acknowledged unrest outside the province, in other parts of China. Chinese police have shot Tibetan protesters in Sichuan province, wounding four. So far, the estimate from protests in Lhasa is 13 deaths, which is probably low. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama sits in exile in India, and relations between India and China may grow strained as a result. It's a bad situation, but pressure must continue to be put on the Chinese government to allow for independence or at least some peaceful solution.

• And finally, Doraemon is a Japanese ambassador. When I went to Bangkok a while ago, we saw this Doraemon piggy bank in the Thai version of a 7-11. The bank was free with a hot dog, and my friend didn't want the hot dog but was willing to pay the price for the bank. The clerk refused to give the bank without the hot dog. It was an amusing cultural misunderstanding that hopefully Doraemon, in his new diplomatic role, will help to prevent.

The Great Rationalizer

This BBC interview with George W. Bush is truly amazing. He should put it on display at his future Presidential library (where it can stand in for all the missing books). The logical contortions that this guy has to make just to go on living are truly remarkable. It's like watching a yoga master twist himself into a knot. Here's Bushie on Darfur:

Frei: You were very tough in your speech about Darfur. And, yet again, you called what's happening there genocide?

Mr Bush: Yeah.

Frei: Is enough being done by your administration to stop that?

Mr Bush: I think we are. Yeah. You know, I had to make a seminal decision. And that is whether or not I would commit US troops into Darfur. And I was pretty well backed off of it by - you know, a lot of folks - here in America that care deeply about the issue. And so, once you make that decision, then you have to rely upon an international organisation like the United Nations to provide the oomph - necessary manpower...

Frei: Yesterday, Steven Spielberg - the Hollywood director - pulled out of the Beijing Olympics over Darfur. He said the Chinese aren't doing enough to stop the killing in Darfur. Do you applaud his move?

Mr Bush: That's up to him. I'm going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event. On the other hand, I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg so, I get to talk to President Hu Jintao. And I do remind him that he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur. There's a lot of issues that I suspect people are gonna, you know, opine, about during the Olympics. I mean, you got the Dali Lama crowd. You've got global warming folks. You've got, you know, Darfur and... I am not gonna you know, go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way 'cause I do it all the time with the president. I mean. So, people are gonna be able to choose - pick and choose how they view the Olympics.

On sleeping well:

Frei: I mention the genocide thing also because your predecessor, President Clinton, says that the one thing - one of the key things that keeps him up at night is that he didn't do enough over at Rwanda to stop the killing there. Is it possible that Darfur might become your Rwanda?

Mr Bush: I don't think so. I certainly hope not. I mean, Rwanda was, you know, I think 900,000 people in a very quick period of time of just wholesale slaughter. And I, you know, I appreciate President Clinton's compassion and concern. And, you know, I'm comfortable with making' a decision that I think is the best decision. And comfortable with the notion that once that decision is made we're keeping the world's focus as best as we can on that amongst other issues.

On Iraq:

Frei: But, do you regret, rather, I should say that you didn't listen to your - some of your commanders earlier, to send more troops to Iraq to achieve the kind of results that we're seeing now?

Mr Bush: You know, my commanders didn't tell me that early. My commanders said, "We got the right level of troops."

On torture:

Frei: But, given Guantanamo Bay, given also Abu Ghraib, given renditions, does this not send the wrong signal to the world?

Mr Bush: It should send a signal that America is going to respect law. But, it's gonna take actions necessary to protect ourselves and find information that may protect others. Unless, of course, people say, "Well, there's no threat. They're just making up the threat. These people aren't problematic." But, I don't see how you can say that in Great Britain after people came and, you know, blew up bombs in subways. I suspect the families of those victims are - understand the nature of killers. And, so, what people gotta understand is that we'll make decisions based upon law. We're a nation of law [...]

Frei: Can you honestly say, Mr President, that today America still occupies the moral high ground?

Mr Bush: Absolutely - absolutely. We believe in human rights and human dignity. We believe in the human condition. We believe in freedom. And we're willing to take the lead.

I mean, those are some world-class justifications there. Olympic level, actually. There oughta be an event.

UPDATE: Here's another rationalization - good news, we haven't waterboarded in the fashion of the Spanish during the Inquisition or the Japanese in World War II, but only in the fashion of the Khmer Rouge or the French in Algeria! I feel so much better about my country!

Perspective

Quick definition of terms:

Sudan convicting a teacher to 15 days for allowing a teddy bear in her classroom to be called "Mohammed": Regrettable.

Sudan, the same country, enabling the genocide of close to a million Darfurians: Unforgivable and a global tragedy.

Unfortunately, only the first one of these is on the news today.

"This Melt Is Unprecedented"

The war for the Arctic can now begin.

A warm summer has produced a record melt of the polar ice cap, leaving the Northwest Passage clear enough for a sailboat to pass and prompting nations of the far north to assert claims over the Arctic Ocean seabed.

"The entire length of the Northwest Passage is navigable," said Trudy Wohlleben, senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service, a government agency.

Ice usually blocks at least some parts of the passage, she said. "This melt is unprecedented, and it"s speeding up."

The development threatens to accelerate long-frozen conflicts over security, sovereignty, environmental and economic conflicts among four powers with claims over the Arctic: the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Russia.

Russia said yesterday that 12 of its strategic bomber planes had begun a two-day exercise over the north of the country that was to include the firing of cruise missiles, the air force said.

All four Arctic powers have publicized their presence in the region this summer, the most dramatic being the planting of the Russian flag under the North Pole by a miniature submarine.

The resources in that region are so rich that we could easily see a shooting war. And yet drilling in the polar region would be a continuation of the very same policies that caused the cap to melt in the first place. And while the cap melt will cause sea levels to rise uncomfortably, inland the water and snowpacks are melting away, which will lead to more resource wars (the nature of man is at least in part a conflict for resources, going back some million years. Just look at Darfur, where the Arabs are now turning on each other because resources are scarce).

We need major policy change that goes beyond encouraging fluorescent light bulbs or making sure the Capitol fleet is green (although that's not a bad start).

Today I Am Ashamed To Be A Jew (UPDATED AND BUMPED)

Like everyone of the Jewish faith, I have citizenship in Israel. One of the core tenets is rememberance, the idea that we honor our forbears by keeping them and their struggles in our thoughts. Central to this is the rememberance of the Holocaust; there is even a holiday, Yom Ha-Shoah, a tribute to those millions we lost during the Nazi Wehrmacht, and a vow to never forget the stinging power of genocide.

We have forgotten.

CAIRO, Aug. 19 -- Israel closed the door Sunday on a surge of asylum-seekers from Sudan's Darfur region and from other African countries, the largest influx of non-Jewish refugees in the modern history of the Jewish state.

Authorities announced that they had expelled 48 of more than 2,000 African refugees who have entered illegally from Egypt in recent weeks. Officials said they would allow 500 Darfurians among them to remain, but would deport everyone else back to Egypt and accept no more illegal migrants from Darfur or other places.

If this was a problem of space, or a rigid stance against lawbreaking, they wouldn't allow 500 to stay. They have put a limit on compassion for those fleeing their own genocide, the same circumstance out of which Israel was born.

Israeli officials claim that they have assurances from the Egyptians that the refugees won't be sent back to Darfur, but when asked directly, the Egyptians did allow that these Sudanese would be sent back to the Sudan. Which would be a death sentence.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel had sought no assurances about the future of the refugees. "Israel just said, 'Please take them,' " the Egyptian official said [...]

Sudan and Israel officially are enemies, and Sudan's government has said any refugees sent back from Israel would be considered as having dealt with an enemy state and treated accordingly.

"If deported to Sudan, they will be tried for treason," said Madhal Aguer, a private aid worker in Cairo for refugees from a separate conflict in southern Sudan; a long-running civil war between the north and south killed up to 1 million people before a peace deal in 2005.

Also, the Israelis claimed that they would separate those Sudanese coming from Darfur and those coming from the rest of the country, accepting those facing genocide in the region. This they did not do.

Israel sent back the first group of 48 African refugees through the Karm Abu Salim, or Kerem Shalom, crossing with Egypt late Saturday night, Egyptian and Israeli officials confirmed. Egypt said the deportees included refugees from Darfur.

Israel apparently expelled them without hearings, in contravention of a refugee accord it has signed that requires countries to determine whether deportation will subject asylum-seekers to mistreatment, said Ben-Dor, the Israeli refugee lawyer.

They have forgotten their history.

In the 1930s, when Jews were fleeing Eastern Europe in droves to escape the coming crackdown from the Nazis, Jews were denied access to Palestine by the British. In fact, many countries closed their doors to the Jews who were trying to escape Germany, Austria, Poland, and practically every country in Europe. Fueled by anti-Semitism, countries dithered and made excuses not to accept Jewish refugees. Even the United States never raised their immigration levels beyond a certain quota, which was left unfilled to begin with (one of the few countries that allowed Jews to settle was China, and many of them were transported to Shanghai, as depicted in the film Shanghai Ghetto). Hundreds of thousands of Jews were denied safe haven, which meant almost certain death in the concentration camps.

Why the Israeli government is doing this is baffling to me. I give credit to the majority of the Israeli Parliament, who actually petitioned against this. But it was to no avail. Ehud Olmert played the part of a little bureaucrat who added up numbers in a book instead of looking at the human costs involved. It's shameful, and it does violence to my ancestors.

UPDATE: Some idiot at the Corner called the influx of 2,300 "Muslims" an existential threat to Israel, and praises the deportation. First, Darfurians escaping the genocide are Christians. Second of all, as Neil says, "2300 refugees have come into Israel, which has a population over seven million, over the last six months. Israel already has over a million Arab residents. Existential threats don't come in the form of a couple thousand people fleeing genocide who would quickly fall in love with a country that rescued them."

UPDATE II: Good for Rahm Emanuel. From Jesse Lee in an email:

Ambassador Sallai Meridor
Embassy of Israel
3514 International Dr. N.W.
Washington DC 20008

Dear His Excellency Ambassador Meridor:

The British Broadcasting Corporation reports today that Israel has returned 48 Sudanese people to Egypt and intends to refuse entrance to refugees from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

I am writing today to express my disappointment that Israel would turn away any person fleeing from persecution. I understand the concern the State of Israel has for maintaining the integrity of her borders, but if any country should understand the special needs of those affected by the genocide in Darfur, it should be Israel. Since its founding, Israel has been committed to finding homes for those who suffer at the hands of war and despair. The international community looks to Israel as a land of hope and sanctuary.

In 1948, the Jewish Diaspora finally had a place to call home. I hope that the state of Israel will reconsider its decision to turn away those refugees who must flee Darfur to avoid death and persecution so that the Sudanese people can find asylum in a state that was founded to be a home and a place of hope for those who had suffered similarly.

Sincerely,

Rahm Emanuel
Member of Congress

Hope In Darfur

This is indeed good news, and it was orchestrated by the UK, not the US. This is kind of what I was talking about when I discussed Gordon Brown's visit the other day. He appears to be skilled at getting others to agree with him and also think it was their idea all along:

Gordon Brown scored a dramatic first foreign policy victory last night when the UN security council voted to deploy a 26,000-strong international force to Darfur, with a mandate to stop the massacres of civilians which have driven 2 million people from their homes.

Mr Brown has made Darfur a foreign policy priority, and the UN resolution was an initiative he promoted 10 days earlier with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, aiming to end a year of international drift on the issue. This week he secured George Bush's support for the draft.

The vote was passed unanimously after China, the Sudanese government's main defender at the UN, dropped its objections. British officials said that China's oil interests in Sudan were eventually outweighed by anxiety about a possible international human rights backlash over Darfur aimed at next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

It looks like Sudan will support the force as well. I'm liking Gordon Brown so far. It's also important for the credibility of the UN to achieve some global consensus on the side of human rights. Though there is reason for reservation:

Human rights activists welcomed last night's vote, but warned that a lot more political will would be needed to ensure the security council decision was implemented in the face of potential obstructionist tactics by Khartoum, which had referred to similar versions of the resolution as "ugly" and "awful".

The resolution had been stripped of any threat of sanctions against the Sudanese government if it blocked the force's deployment, though Mr Brown said his government would "redouble" efforts to impose an embargo if that happened.

"It is not time ... to pop open the champagne bottles. The true test of this measure is not what happens today in New York, but what happens over the coming weeks in Darfur," Allyn Brooks-LaSure of the Save Darfur Coalition said last night.

Incidentally, the breakthrough in Darfur may be coming about due to a giant underground lke recently discovered there. If the resource wars can end there, suddenly there would be less of a need to drive people off their land. It's amazing how much the environment can be linked to gloal security.

More Congressional Progress

The House passed bills supporting divestiture of the governments of Iran and Sudan, which is a unique way of using dollar diplomacy to pressure these regimes to stop their support of actions like genocide (in the case of Sudan) or support for terrorism (Iran).

The House also passed The Fair Pay Act to end wage discrimination in the workplace. This is in reference to a Supreme Court decision whereby a pay discrimination case had to be filed within 180 days to be actionable. This bill would reverse that. But it's likely to be vetoed.

Also the Democrats passed ethics reform legislation through the House despite GOP obstructionism. They refused a conference and so the Democratic leadership simply reconciled the bill on their own and stopped the amendment process. GOP whiners could have allowed a conference if they wanted a place at the table.

This has been a good few months for the Democratic Congress. Whether or not the public will recognize this remains to be seen.

UPDATE: Yes, it is kind of hilarious that Ted Stevens, the guy who had his house raided by the FBI and the IRS yesterday, might block passage of the LOBBYING REFORM bill. It sure makes sense, though. Why would he want lobbying reform?

The Chocolate Labradoodle

(Get it, it means a Brown poodle! Damn I'm good!)

I listened to this press conference from the new UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Bush this morning, and I didn't get this impression at all. Brown was cordial in agreeing with Bush on a number of issues, but a lot of those issues he assumed agreement were things like Darfur and global warming, where Brown wants to push Bush to his side. And as far as Iraq was concerned, Brown refused to go any further than discuss the four provinces over which the UK has specific authority. He didn't venture outside of Basra. And he said Afghanistan was "the central front in the war on terror," despite denying he said so within 10 minutes of that remark.

I think Brown's playing an interesting political game, playing to Bush's obvious vanity while forcing his hand on global issues other than Iraq. I came out of listening to him liking his approach.

Chauncey Billups?

Really, you have 6'0" Chauncey Billups guard 6'8" LeBron James (without help) on an isolation play with 10 seconds left in double OT? When you have Tayshaun Prince, who's actually the same size as LeBron, on the floor? And you don't converge to make him pass but take a two-footer layup?

I think Detroit contracted the curse of Chris Webber.

(amazing game by LeBron. He scored the last 25 of Cleveland's points himself. That's Jordan-esque. However, I have not forgiven James for refusing to sign teammate Iraq Newble's letter to China regarding their indirect support for the Sudanese government and the genocide in Darfur. Maybe he doesn't want to mess up his Nike contract by criticizing the country where a lot of their shoes are made. Great basketball player, bad human being.)

Exhausting All Nonmilitary Angles

Yes I'm describing the Bush Administration. In Darfur. And it took several years for them to get up the gumption to even do this.

President Bush ordered new U.S. economic sanctions Tuesday to pressure Sudan's government to halt the bloodshed in Darfur that the administration has condemned as genocide.

"I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world," the president said.

The sanctions target government-run companies involved in Sudan's oil industry, and three individuals, including a rebel leader suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur.

"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians," the president said. "My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide.

"The world has a responsibility to put an end to it," Bush said.

Of course, it's positive that the White House is learning from a Clinton-era mistake and calling the situation genocide. But everyone knows who is really keeping Sudan afloat, despite this and other sanctions. China is heavily invested in the country's oil reserves, and in return they have provided a substantial amount of arms for over a decade. If you want to really stop the janjaweed killing you must pressure China to divest themselves of these deals which prop up the Sudanese government. That's the only way you can put some teeth into any sanctions.

The other takeaway from this for me is that the United States is perfectly willing to adopt a go-slow approach as it relates to Sudan, probably because it doesn't want to disrupt or anger China, and yet we have no problem going into countries in the Middle East and establishing permanent bases and then wondering "why they hate us."

Obligatory Monthly Basketball Post

After the great Golden State upset in Round 1, the NBA playoffs have started to wane. Expect as many 79-76 scores as there are games in the East, and expect Utah and Cleveland to go bye-bye, leaving us with Detroit and San Antone, again. I just can't get excited about that.

And I think they're going to have to expand the Western Conference playoffs to 12 teams now, seeing that Portland and Seattle just got Oden and Durant. My 76ers made the bold and inspiring move to win more than any non-lottery team in the second half of the season, leaving them with exactly what they deserved - a useless 12th pick. I'm so happy they pushed to 35 wins, that'll look really good on Mo Cheeks' coaching resume.

I am glad that the three teams that tanked the most (Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee) got shut out of the big prize. But man, the West is stacked for the forseeable future.

UPDATE: Just to throw a little politics into this, Cavs benchwarmer Ira Newble should be commended for pushing his fellow NBAers to petition China to help stop the genocide in Darfur. There are actually quite a few socially conscious NBA athletes; Adonal Foyle and Eton Thomas spring to mind.

Long Way To Go In Darfur

It seems like every couple months the Sudanese government agrees to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur, and then a few months go by, and they agree again, and the peacekeepers never actually get there. But the Secretary-General is hailing this latest agreement:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described Sudan's decision to allow 3,000 UN troops into Darfur as "a very positive sign".

The UN contingent will provide support for 7,000 struggling African Union troops there.

Sudan's apparent change of heart comes after months of international pressure to accept UN peacekeepers.

But Khartoum is yet to agree to the deployment of a much-larger AU force of 20,000 troops proposed by the UN.

3,000 UN troops to guard an area the size of Texas is a pittance. And the AU forces couldn't do it with a garrison twice that size. This may be an attempt by Khartoum to get the international community off their backs while continuing the slaughter administered by the janjaweed. Part two of this effort is supposed to include attack helicopters and armored personnel carriers. Until then, I'd say that the UN forces aren't even equipped to do the job.

Countries around the world need to continue to put pressure on the Sudanese government until they renounce the violence, start locking up the militia members, take away their weapons and allow the ethnic Darfurians to return to their homes. That'll take more than 3,000 blue helmets to implement.

The Global Iraq Effect

Even when excepting the death of Kurt Vonnegut, I feel like the entire world is spiraling out of control. And this flaring up of violence in numerous trouble spots is happening in direct connection to a new British report alleging that the occupation of Iraq has spawned "new terror" in the region. The headlines over the past few days show this to be undeniably true.

Just look at what's been happening over the past few days:

• 1,000 people have died in clashes in Mogadishu, where unrest and anarchy still reign after the supposedly successful effort to drive Islamic fundamentalists from the capital. Half of the city's population, well over a million people, have fled.

• Two major suicide bombings have killed dozens in Algeria, where local groups affiliated with Al Qaeda have claimed responsibility. This tracks with increasing fundamentalist activity throughout North Africa, including but not limited to Somalia.

• Just look at Sudan, where Janjaweed militia killed hundreds in eastern Chad by opening fire on villagers, moving the Darfur genocide across the border and threatening a wider war. Incredibly, this came as President Bush's Ambassador to Sudan, Andrew Nastios, claimed that there is no genocide going on in Darfur.

MENENDEZ: Do you consider the ongoing situation in Darfur a genocide, yes or no? […]

NATSIOS: There is very little violence in Darfur right now.

MENENDEZ: I asked you to answer my question.

NATSIOS: I just answered your question.

MENENDEZ: Is the circumstances in Darfur today a continuing genocide? Yes or no?

NATSIOS: There is very little fighting between rebels and the government and very few civilian casualties going on in Darfur right now.

Incidentally. 80,000 Darfurians have fled from attacks in just the past two months.

• And there's a reconstituted, newly resurgent Taliban operating from strongholds in Pakistan, bolstered by members of their group who are returning from Iraq, teaching new techniques like suicide bombing and IED attacks, and pulling off attacks with unusual sophistication and deadly force.

This is EXACTLY the type of global landscape we should expect to see given the total lack of leadership, and the harm caused by the irrational and ridiculous occupation of Iraq. Let's go back to the British report about Iraq spawning new terror:

The countries had tried to "keep the lid on" problems by military force and had failed to address the root causes, the Oxford Research Group warned.

It said Iran, Syria and North Korea had become "emboldened", while the Taleban was on the rise in Afghanistan [...]

"Treating Iraq as part of the war on terror... created a combat training zone for jihadists," it says.

Lead study author Chris Abbott said: "There is a clear and present danger - an increasingly marginalised majority living in an environmentally constrained world, where military force is more likely to be used to control the consequences of these dangerous divisions.

"Add to this the disastrous effects of climate change, and we are looking at a highly unstable global system by the middle years of the century unless urgent action is taken now."

We know the direct results of jihadist training in Iraq and how that relates to a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. In North Africa, the Iraq effect plays itself out in a mix of negligence, bolstered jihadist action, and a neoconservative unilateralist foreign policy which alienates allies to collectively act on behalf of the less fortunate. That we have not yet gotten a hold on Darfur is to the world's undying shame. That we used Ethiopia as a proxy to defeat Somalian Islamists without concerning ourselves with the fact that Ethiopia is hated in Somalia has led to the continued chaos in that nation. That we have given recruiting posters for Al Qaeda and jihadism every passing day in Iraq leads to events like that in Algeria (although it's also home-grown). It's not that the cauldron wasn't simmering already; what we've done is turn the heat up to 500 degrees and closed the lid tighter.

We cannot afford 22 more months of this global anarchy, where Iraq is a hot poker stoking the fires of violence in that country and all over the region. This lack of leadership is actually costing us the war on terrorism, which we are undeniably losing.