Of course, Dr. Cole has his round-up, Iran Brokers Call for Ceasefire; Bush reduced to Irrelevancy in Iraq; Fighting Continues, and Noah Shachtman of Danger Room has a nice catch in his post, Is Iraq Still an Insurgency?

My reading is that Prime Minister al Malaki is the biggest loser. He launched this attack and it failed to achieve anything; his own party, Da’wa, and ISCI had to ask their Iranian sponsors to intervene; he is left isolated and will eventually be thrown under the bus.

The US is also a loser, because the force it trained and supported was ineffective, and it’s support killed more civilians, which is not good for a “hearts and minds” campaign.

Iran stayed neutral, but once again demonstrated that it is the power in the region when it comes to Iraq. It has been a major backer of ISCI and the Da’wa party, but it can also talk to al Sadr, so it may shift its support.

[Read more →]

The Local Economy

I can’t believe I’m eating cat food‽

[Editor: I know it’s a lousy picture because it was taken through a window and the flash went off, but this is one that shows best what this “lovely” creature is – a turkey vulture. Apparently there aren’t enough flattened possums on the roads, so he’s forced to stop by a feral cat feeding location for a meal. At least he was eating the cheap wet stuff and not the kibble. For some reason the cats didn’t bother him.]

Another of the Shrubbery’s appointees is resigning to spend more time with his family legal team according to this press release from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced today he will be stepping down as the nation’s chief housing officer” so he can figure out how to stay out of prison for any number of his activities during the last seven years.

The guy has been blatant, and hasn’t been called on this crap. He is part of the failure to deal with Katrina, and hasn’t been doing anything about the mortgage meltdown, which falls right in the middle of his area of responsibility. Maybe we can’t finally determine how many contracts you can engineer for friends and relatives before it’s too many.