Will The Media Continue To Ignore Iraq?

Bernstein doesn't think the MSM will cover Iraq:

This is, in a sense, a curious case where the usual myopia of the American mass media is going to help Obama even if the policy goes wrong.  Basically, as long as Americans aren't dying in Iraq, there are going to be very few news stories about that nation.  That's going to be true if there's a low-level civil war, and it's certainly going to be true if democracy doesn't, in the end, triumph.  Sure, if there's a coup, CNN will cover it briefly, but after that it'll be back to weather, murders, shark attacks, and whatever else CNN fills its days with.  If there's no coup, but just increasingly rigged elections, or Iraq falling further into Iran's camp, it'll get even less coverage (were you aware of this anti-American rally in Iraq last week?  Didn't think so).

He thinks Obama will continue to draw down troops even if all hell breaks loose. That seems to be the message from the White House. But I'm not so sanguine about the reaction in the US if all those deaths and all that cost and all that damage ends up empowering a Shiite pseudo-strongman, with torture prisons and rigged elections. Anarchy is on the march.

“I Was A Walking Corpse” In The Conservative Community

And other incidents in which free-thinkers on the right were fired, punished, ostracized and uninvited after moments of dissent. Bruce Bartlett has the names. My own ostracism was enforced from 2002 onwards as I criticized spending. Mercifully, I don't live or work in the professional conservative think-tank/magazine world. But I am airbrushed from any account of the right, literally barred from linkage by NRO and never responded to. The Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard didn't even review The Conservative Soul, if only to trash it.

Dissenters are dead to movement conservatives. But I quite enjoy my life as an Oakeshottian zombie. Beats working for Heritage.

Iraq: Crime And Punishment

Musings on Iraq takes a hard look at crime in Iraq:

For almost thirty years Iraq has been embroiled in wars, sanctions, and most recently a civil war. Since 2009, violence has hit its lowest levels since the U.S. invasion. Now Iraqis have to face rising crime from everyday criminals, militants, the security forces, and others. The increase in kidnappings and trafficking are signs of an impoverished society. The wars and sanctions have devastated the Iraqi economy. It’s estimated that 51% of the workforce is either unemployed or underemployed. That has hit the young, ages 15-29, the hardest. They constitute 57% of those out of work, and 250,000 new people enter the labor force each year. Add to that the fact that 25% of the population lives below the poverty level, which equals $2 a day, and the reason why so many might be drawn to illegal activities or be the victim of it can be understood. Until Iraq can find gainful employment for its people, and capitalize upon its great oil wealth crime is likely going to remain a pressing issue within the country. 

The blog also catches us up on attempts to form a new government. My grimmest quote of the day must come from an assessment of the prisons were Sunnis were brutally tortured by the Maliki government:

“America is the symbol of democracy, but then you have the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” Mr. Maliki said. “The American government took tough measures, and we are doing the same, so where is the problem and why this raucousness?”

Yes, our moral standing to protest such torture is largely kaput. Our example is now used to downplay torture, not expose it. Such are the fruits of Cheney's madness. And Maliki does not look like a man who wants to cede power peacefully, does he? So, ppart from a deeply divisive poll recount, disqualification of Sunnis, alienation of the Awakening groups, a lack of a legitimate government, a failure to integrate the military and police, and the emergence of sectarian torture prisons … the surge has been a fantastic success, hasn't it?

Americans: Smarter Than The Tea Party Thinks They Are

Not everyone has developed instant tea-party amnesia about the last eight years:

Nearly six in ten (59 percent) of those polled said that Bush was to blame for the current state of the economy while 25 percent put the blame on Obama. While those blaming Obama has risen from a July 2009 Post/ABC survey when 16 percent said the economy was his fault, the number of people blaming Bush is virtually unchanged — 61 percent in July 2009 as compared to 59 percent now.

DC’s Medical Marijuana Law

Scott Morgan suggests some improvements. This seems to me to be the most important:

2. The bill invades patient privacy by requiring detailed records of every purchase. This information puts patients at risk under federal law. Purchase records must be kept anonymous.

If you care about this issue, Scott tells you how to get involved.