Friday, September 28, 2018

Who do you believe?

Who do you believe?

That's what the confirmation comes down to.

I think Dr. Blasey presented herself well.  I do not think she made a case.  If other people had stayed out of it -- say the two whisperers who decided to follow her -- maybe her words yesterday would have been enough.

It is the true example of a he-said/she-said.

Dr. Blasey says she was assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh when they were both in high school.

Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't.

It didn't help her case that another woman steps forward to say Kavanaugh put his erect penis in her face at a party.  That would be the same woman who recently contacted old friends to ask them if they remembered the incident and did they know if it was Kavanaugh who did it or was she confused?

I'm sorry, you stick your dick in my face, I'm pretty damn sure I remember you.

So that waste of whatever should enver have come forward.  She hurt Dr. Blasey's case because she upped the outrage and rhetoric and delieved nothing while distracting from Dr. Blasey's own presentation.

Then you had the third one -- queen nonsense.  She wants us to believe that Kavanaugh was part of an organized gang-rape team that drugged and gang-raped women for months. 

If that were true -- and, no, I don't believe it -- that woman is an accessory to gang-rape because she failed to call the police.

Her story -- as full of lies as it seems -- is not about an event that happened, a crime that took place, it's about an ongoing crime and she never spoke out until years after it ended.

Dr. Blasey had a simple story.  The American people were primed to hear it.  But then these other two women came forward with their sensationalistic, trash TV accounts.  They just cheapened the whole discussion.  But that's to be expected when that hideous Michael Avenatti gets involved.  The Democreats need to shut him down.  He is Jerry Springer, he does not help them.

Patrick Martin (WSWS) offers:

In her testimony, Ford forcefully accused Kavanaugh of carrying out a sexual assault on her at a party in 1982, aided by a second boy, Mark Judge. Kavanaugh made an equally forceful denial. He repeatedly cited statements from individuals who were said to be at the party, including a friend of Ford’s, that they recalled no such party taking place.
Thursday’s hearing demonstrated the deeply reactionary and anti-democratic character of the #MeToo campaign, as Democrats suggested they believed Blasey Ford even before hearing Kavanaugh’s testimony. The commentary in the media followed suit, proceeding from the assumption that Ford’s allegations were undeniably true. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin declared, that “just the idea that anyone could consider this [to be] false testimony” was outrageous.

The WSWS takes no position on the truth or falsity of the allegations. However, Blasey Ford presented no corroborating evidence beyond her own memory, nor was she asked to do so by the Democratic Senators. From a legal standpoint, there were significant gaps in her account. This allowed Republicans like Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, defenders of torture and police murders, to posture as advocates of democratic principles like the presumption of innocence, and to proclaim that America was not a police-state.


Cher's new album DANCING QUEEN is out.




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, September 27, 2018.  Confront the fake asses -- and is there a bigger fake ass than Barbra Streisand?


Love Cher to death but never felt the urge to emulate her use of the c-word.  That said, if ever someone earned the term, it would be Granny Streisand.  Some of you may not recognize her under that heavy wig and with all those fillers in her face, but that's Barbra Liar Streisand.  The EGOT winner?  No, she didn't win a Tony.  Broadway kissed her ass with a "Star of the Decade" award they made up for her and that they haven't given since.  She didn't win a Tony.  She got a special prize.

Rita Moreno?  She's an EGOT who won awards.

But Barbra's used being ugly as an excuse to shut down any criticism almost as much as she's used her gender.

'If you're a strong woman, they call you a bitch.'

Well, Barbra, they call you a bitch because you do bitchy things.  You, for exzample, steal Cher's role in A STAR IS BORN.  Or you go out of your way to treat Madeline Kahn like dirt on the set of WHAT'S UP DOC?  You've earned your reputation -- good and bad.  And that's why you're considered a bitch.

You're also a liar who really needs to stop recording.  Your new album?  Teams of dogs pulling sleds in the iditarod have less husky voices.


No one was ever nastier about their fans being gay than Babsie.  She called them "f*gs" and much worse.  They're the only ones who supported her career and that was how she rewarded them.  Not only do UP THE SANDBOX and FOR PETE'S SAKE exist -- both are homophobic -- but so does Babs visiting a film set and hissing "f**got" at Harrsion Ford in what she thinks is a funny bit.

No, it wasn't funny.

But Jason Gould being gay was karmic.  Nothing wrong with being gay.  But when the Phyllis Schafly of the left ends up with a gay son, that's karma.  And she is Phyllis.  She's such a liar that when she decided feminism was the blanket to cover her bitchy ways, she pretended she was one.  But those of us not born in 1999 are aware that she trashed feminism, that she wasn't a feminist, that UP THE SANDBOX (a huge box office disaster) was her response to feminism.  A huge box office disaster.  American women weren't going to pay to see themselves portrayed a pathetic wife who didn't work outside the home but did fantasize about her husband's lover being jealous.  Poor Barbra, I feel like another 'Streisand effect' is about to take place.

So, let's get the laughs going.



That's her new single.

It's hideous.  And it's so bad, you know she had to have written it.

Really written it.

Not just put her name to it so she could get publishing royalties.

Remember when she wrote her 'first' song.  She kept on and on about how great it was to write a song, "Evergreen."  She was so proud of herself.

Barbra, like Donald Trump, thinks if she says it, it makes it true.

Doesn't work that way for either eogmaniac.  And what Barbra forgot was that before "Evergreen," she'd taken songwriting credit.

But there she is -- check the videos, check the print reports -- promoting A STAR IS BORN -- where the crew hated her so badly, they mixed s**t with the mud so Barbra was rolling around in s**t.  And what's she saying, she just wrote a song!  "Evergreen!"  She felt so inadequate before that because all the other "girls" were writing songs.  But she wasn't able to.  Until "Evergreen."

So why don't you get honest and admit you didn't write the earlier songs you put your name to?

How do you sleep, Barbra?

Like a wealthy whore?

I don't like Barbra, I never have.  I've defended her from time to time because even monsters like her have a good side or two.

But she's the epitome of trash.  She always has been.  That she took offense at Madonna is hilarious because she was the worst.  She felt Madonna was trash but no one ever talked about Madonna smelling.  By contrast, she was "B.O. Barbra" -- and, no, Mike Wallace wasn't referring to box office when he would tell that story (over and over).  He meant body odor.  She had bad habits -- refusing to bathe -- before she finally landed on Broadway.  She stunk.

In her song, she's having a dialogue with Donald Trump.  It's hilarious on many levels and not just the fact that she's relating to him in what can only be described as sexually.  Why not?  They're both damaged goods who never recovered from bad childhoods.

It's also hilarious because Tire Kingdom long ago shut down but I can't imagine "Don't Lie To Me" over the p.a. system anywhere else.  Yes, it's that dated.

"How do you sleep?" asks Babs in the song forgetting that ripping off John Lennon deserves its own form of hell.  She really thinks she can get away with anything at this point.

Piss me off, Babs, I know all your dirt, remember, I had Kay fired from my set because I couldn't take another story about how awful you were.  Didn't disagree with your hair dresser, just didn't need to spend every day hearing about you.

It's difficult to identify the worst part of  "Don't Lie To Me" -- in part because there are so many awful things about it.  Love the tempo change with these hideous lyrics:


Kings and Queens
Cooks and thieves
You don't see the forest 
For the trees


That's like ISHTAR bad songwriting -- only those songs were supposed to be bad.


Yeah, Babas has been rising on my s**t list since she took to trashing Laura Nyro -- an actual artist, unlike Las Vegas Babs.  Laura, of course, gave Babs her second hit single -- at a time when she needed a hit badly because, as Clive Davis told her, the albums weren't selling and the kids didn't like her.  It was make it or break it time for Babs.  And "Stoney End" provided her with a recording career (had it not hit, she would have been dropped by Columbia -- and that decision was out of Clive's hands).  So how sweet of her, after Laura's died of cancer, to show up on a recent tour mocking the song.

But I probably wouldn't be writing any of this if she didn't write a song with these lyrics:

How do you sleep when the world keeps turning
All that we built has come undone
How do you sleep when the world is burning
Everyone answers to someone.

Did that bitch just say the world is burning?

Because it is and it has been.

Now maybe the woman dubbed Jewcifer by her YENTYL crew  (Jewish Lucifer, get it?  I don't but it was about what an ass she was and they came up with it after she made them sign  a statement swearing she was the best boss in the world) doesn't get the problem?

This is Barbra Streisand, after all, the woman who loathes Palestinians and basically all Arabs.  (Her films were banned in the Arab world starting with FUNNY GIRL.)

I loathe her but most people don't know it.  I don't make a point to note it.  I do try to give her credit when she deserves it.  THE SECOND BARBRA STREISAND album is a classic album.  Otherwise?  Like most Americans, if I want to hear music from that time period, I'm going to go with Diana Ross who doesn't have the anti-Arab nonsense and who also has actual hit songs -- none of which sound like the theme to a Linda Lavin sitcom.  In terms of film, she gave a strong performance in her last comedy and I would've voted for her if she'd gotten an Academy Award nomination.  Other than that?  This is the woman who still trashes WHAT'S UP DOC? -- the funniest film she has ever been in and an American classic.  Maybe when you've made FUNNY LADY, you've confessed that you have no taste.  (And those rooms, they're overdone.  She's never undestood simplicity and all she ever does is do a room in an overstylized version of how it would have been decorated ten to fifteen years prior.  She's a cookie cutter, she's not a designer.)

Joe Queenan did a very strong essay on how middle of the road and how disappointing all of Barbra's 'artistic' choices have been.


But, again, I usually bite my tongue. 


I don't bite it today because she's worried about the world burning.

"Stranger In A Strange Land."

That was 2005.  That was Babs trying to sing against war.

Now the Iraq War didn't end but, damn, didn't Babs' sudden interest end?  Why, yes, it did.  It's almost as though -- say it ain't so! -- Babs was attempting a comeback -- to the top forty (she failed) -- on the back of the Iraq War.

And I'm sorry to break it to the wealthy woman who hates Arabs but the world's been burning all this time for people in Iraq, in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Syria . . .

And it's been burning with no attempt by her to leave her own private mall.

Now she wants the world to listen up, to hear her.

Why?

So she can demonstrate that she's lost her singing voice?  She could have it back.  I'm sure the man who taught her to sing could rescue it if he's still alive.  A qualified vocal coach could as well and I could explain it to her in one sentence.  Thing is, though, I do care about the Arab world and I'm not here to enable Yionism.


This album will come and go, yet another unmemorable release in Barbra's pedestrian discography.

It won't get airplay because she has no voice and she has no audience.

I don't get why women would support her.  Not today.  Jon Peters' actions were known -- widely known.  And it was full blown by the time Barbra moved in with him.  She was fine with it then and she was fine with it after they broke up.  She's no defender of women despite posing as one for the Kavanaugh press coverage.  When will Babs get honest?

I don't get the gay men who buy her albums still.  Her screaming "f**got" at Harrison Ford can be seen on YOUTUBE.  Yes, Jason being gay forced a change in her but is that really reason to continue to buy her albums?

Certainly, her voice isn't.  And I honestly think her Zionism doesn't work with most Americans.  We've matured as a country and aren't so knee jerk today.

I will not forget -- or forgive -- her use of the Iraq War to try to have a hit single.  If it had meant anything to her, if she'd protested the war or if she'd supported it, I could let it go.  But she just used it to try to make a buck.

And now she's telling TIME that she's friends with Colin Powell.  Okay, the bitch is worse than the c-word, much, much worse.  "Republicans who are decent people," she tells TIME of Colin Powell and the George H.W. Bush.


There is nothing decent about Colin Powell.  Even someone as educationally challenged as Barbra Streisand should know better.

Colin lied to the UN and lied to the world.

Her being friends with him -- and praising him -- proves her opposition to the Iraq War was a joke.

But she proves she's a joke.  Did anyone trash her more than Frank Rich?  One critic, yes.  They send him up in WHAT'S UP DOC?  But after that critic, it's Frank Rich.  And yet 'liberal' Babs has made her online life all about linking to and praising Frank Rich.  That's how stupid she truly is.


The Iraq War continues and that's a-okay with Barbra.  Threaten her beloved Israel and she'll show the fangs but kill Arabs and she's fine with it.

Government forces forcibly disappeared scores of Arab Sunni men in . That is no way to fight ISIS. A new report says more:


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HRW:

Iraqi military and security forces have disappeared dozens of mostly Sunni Arab males since 2014, including children as young as 9, often in the context of counterterrorism operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 78-page report, “‘Life Without a Father is Meaningless’: Arbitrary Arrests and Enforced Disappearances in Iraq 2014-2017,” draws on research Human Rights Watch has published on enforced disappearances in Iraq since 2014, when Iraqi forces launched anti-ISIS operations, and documents an additional 74 cases of men and four cases of boys detained by Iraqi military and security forces between April 2014 and October 2017 and forcibly disappeared. The enforced disappearances documented are part of a much wider continuing pattern in Iraq. Iraqi officials have failed to respond to inquiries from the families and Human Rights Watch for information about the disappeared.
“Families across Iraq whose fathers, husbands, and sons disappeared after Iraqi forces detained them are desperate to find their loved ones,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Despite years of searching, and requests to Iraqi authorities, the government has provided no answers about where they are or if they are even still alive.”



Infograph
The International Commission on Missing Persons, which has been working in partnership with the Iraqi government to help recover and identify the missing, estimates that the number of missing people in Iraq could range from 250,000 to one million people, with the International Committee of the Red Cross stating that Iraq has the highest number of missing people in the world.
Human Rights Watch drew on research it has published on enforced disappearances since 2014, and carried out additional interviews from early 2016 to March 2018 with the family members, lawyers, and community representatives of the 78 currently identified as forcibly disappeared, as well as three who had themselves been disappeared and were subsequently released. Researchers reviewed court and other official documents relating to the disappearance cases.
Enforced disappearance is defined under international law as the arrest or detention of a person by state officials or by agents of the state or by people or groups acting with the state’s authorization, support, or acquiescence, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the arrest or to reveal the person’s status or whereabouts. The prohibition also entails a duty to investigate cases of alleged enforced disappearance and prosecute those responsible.
The enforced disappearances documented were carried out by a range of military and security entities, but the highest number, 36, were by groups within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), units under the prime minister’s command, at checkpoints across Iraq. Witnesses said at least 28 of these were carried out by the Hezbollah Brigades.



HRW's Kenneth Roth Tweets:


Iraq is "disappearing" dozens of mostly Sunni Arab men under the guise of combating ISIS, ignoring the fact that such serious abuse helped give rise to ISIS in the first place and could revive its next incarnation.


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These abuses were ignored by the western governments -- including the US -- and that also helped give rise to ISIS.


So let's recap -- Barbra Streisand is all about targeting Arabs.  So skip her latest bad album and instead go with Cher's DANCING QUEEN album which is fun and lacks Babs' heavy pretensions.




The following community sites -- plus BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:

















  • Tuesday, September 25, 2018

    Tori Amos, Noel Gallagher

    Let's just do music.  NME reports on Noel Gallagher (Oasis -- chief songwriter for the badn):

    “I’m due in the studio in January with [producer] David [Holmes] to make another record,” he told The Daily Star.
    Quizzed again on the likelihood of reuniting with his brother Liam, Noel replied: “There’s more chance of Oasis reforming than me winning [a Mercury prize].”
    Earlier this year, Noel teased that he may in fact have two albums’ worth of new material due for release.
     “I’ve got a whole backlog of songs, I write all the time so I’ve got plenty of material,” he said. “I’m going to make another record with David in this way but the last one took four years so I’ll probably have to make another one alongside it in the more traditional sense.”
    Speaking to NME, he suggested that some of his new material sounded like ‘The Police meets The Cure‘.
     
    If you listened to music in the 90s, there's a good chance you know Oasis' "Wonderwall," "Don't Look Back In Anger"  and "Champaign Supernova."

    I really wish Tori Amos would release a collection.  She does a great live version of "Don't Look Back In Anger."  I'd love a Tori album that collected some of her live covers -- Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen," "Gold Dust Woman," "Silver Springs" and "Landslide," Radiohead's "Creep," Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss' "Bette Davis Eyes," Carly Simon's "Boys In The Trees," Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face," George Michael's "Father Figure" and "Faith," Joni Mitchell's "River" and "A Case of You," Elton John's "Rocket Man" and "Daniel," PJ Harvey's "We Float," Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy The Silence," Madonna's "Like A Prayer," Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters," Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," The Cure's "Lovesong," Prince's "Purple Rain" and "Little Red Corvette," Nine Inch Nails' "Something I Can Never Have," Rihanna's "We Found Love," Irene Cara's "Out Here On My Own," Rickie Lee Jones' "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" and Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box."

    So that's 30 tracks.  

    Tori's done one cover album -- STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS -- that was a studio album.  I'm just asking for a collection of the live recordings that already exist.  In other news, Jess Glynne's new album ALWAYS IN BETWEEN comes out next month.
     



    "Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
    Monday, September 24, 2018.  Months after the election, Iraq still has no prime minister and no president.


    The competition for the post of president of Iraq appears to be getting more intense.  Last week, the PUK demanded that the post go to Barham Saleh.  As we noted Thursday:

    There are huge efforts taking place to make Saleh look like the choice.  That includes efforts by the US and oil empires as well -- remember, Saleh sold the Kurds out to ExxonMobil.  Most recently, IRAQI NEWS joined the effort:



    Iraqi Kurdish politician Barham Saleh has obtained approval from the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masud Barzani, to be the Kurdistan Region’s nominee for the presidency of Iraq.
    A KDP source told Baghdad Today that Saleh, a former prime minister of Kurdistan, who was reinstated on Wednesday as a member of the region’s second ruling party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, had met with Barzani twice away from media coverage and won the latter’s approval of his nomination for Iraq’s Presidency.

    The source said the KDP is expected to officially declare its support for Saleh within the next few days.
    Really?

    Massoud Barzani doesn't even like Saleh.  Never has.  Now he's going to back Saleh?  Saleh's seen as an impediment to Kurdistan autonomy and Barzani is going to back him?



    No, Massoud Barzani and the KDP were not going to fall in line behind the PUK's Saleh.  That was a lie from the Talabanis who resort to lies non-stop.  They're a tawdry family who decieved the Iraqi people for over a year and half.  That lie should prevent the PUK from holding the post of presidency for some time.

    The lie?

    In 2012,  Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke.   The incident took place late on December 17, 2012 (see the December 18th snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.    Thursday, December 20, 2012, he was moved to Germany.  He remained there for a year and a half.  He was incapacitated.  But the Talabani family lied to everyone so that, as the Iraqi Constitution requires, Jalal wouldn't be removed from office.

    They lied to the country.  They deceived the Iraqi people.  They propped him up and posed him for pictures -- leading Arabic media to mock it as WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S -- but they couldn't offer video because he couldn't speak.

    He never spoke in public again.  Not even when he returned to Iraq 18 months after his stroke.

    And yet a Talabani thinks they have a place to speak for the government today?

    Iraq needed a president.  Yes, it's a ceremonial post.  But Iraq was in a very difficult position and it needed a president.  It's president was in a German sick bed and unable to speak or move.  Had the Iraqi people known that, they would have followed the Constitution and stripped him of his post.

    When you are the trashy family that lied for over 18 months about the health of the president, you really need to back your tired ass up and sit it down because no one needs to hear from you.  You need to be on your knees begging the Iraqi people for forgiveness, apologizing to them for your lies.

    The Talabanis have never apologized, they haven't even acknowledged their lies.

    They are trash.  How much trash are they?

    They couldn't even get a PUK member to accept their nomination.  They had to go with Saleh who publicly quit the PUK in 2017 -- insulting the PUK when he did.  They offered him the post this month and only then did Saleh rejoin the PUK.


    Yesterday, the KDP nominated their own candidate proving (yet again) that the Talabanis are liars and the KDP was never going to back Saleh.




    The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Sunday officially announced Fuad Hussein as their candidate for president of Iraq.


    RUDAW reports,  "A native of Khanaqin, Hussein has lived much of his life in Baghdad and the Netherlands. He has a doctorate in international relations and speaks Kurdish, Arabic, English and Dutch.  After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he was put in charge of revamping the country’s education curriculum. He most recently served as chief of staff for former KRG President Masoud Barzani."

    The trashy Talabani family's response?  They hiss "Jew!" in an attempt to destroy Fuad's chances.


    If the KDP candidate for Iraq Presidency Dr Fuad Hussein becomes President, history will be made because his wife is Jewish and she will be the first Jewish First Lady in history for Iraq. Are the Iraqi’s ready for this ?




    Leave it to a trashy Talabani, right?  Jalal Talabani's son Qubad is married to a Jewish woman or did Hiwa forget that when he was Tweeting.  And Qubad's wife is a US citizen and a former US State Dept employee.  Others are starting to notice what Talabani did as well:


    Mawd's nephew on : Fouad Hussein is married to a Jew
     
     



    May 12th, Iraq held national elections.  Ahead of the elections, there had been big hopes -- these hopes included a large turnout.   Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) noted, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and prime minister."  RUDAW added, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs."  AFP explained that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women.  THE SIASAT DAILY added, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers." Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reported, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37 million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi women has declined steadily since 2003.  According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence and sanctions."

    Everything the US government planned on -- including Hayder al-Abadi coming in first and getting a second term as prime minister -- turned out to be false.

     Mustapha Karkouti (GULF NEWS) identifies the key issues as follows, "Like in previous elections, the main concerns of ordinary Iraqis continue to be the lack of security and the rampant corruption."

    As we noted the day of the election:

    Corruption is a key issue and it was not a topic explored by candidates outside of Moqtada al-Sadr's coalition.  Empty lip service was offered.  Hayder al-Abadi, current prime minister, had been offering empty lip service for four years.  He did nothing.  Iraqis were supposed to think that, for example, Hayder's focus on ISIS in Mosul mattered.  All life was supposed to stop because of Mosul?  All expectations were to be ignored because of Mosul?

    Arabic social media today and yesterday was full of comments about the lack of improvement in services.  It noted how the elections had not mattered before and, yes, how in 2010 the US government overturned the elections because they didn't like the outcome. 



    So it was probably only surprising to the US government and their press hacks that Hayder wouldn't come in first.  But that was after the votes were counted.  On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote.  NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from 60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last elections in 2014." AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent."  AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."


    Hayder came in third.  Second place was the Iraqi militias led by Hadi al-Ameri and first place was Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc.  All of this took place on May 12th and Iraq still doesn't have a president.

    This morning, they do have yet another candidate.


    Journalist, 's rights activist and local Erbil political figure, Sarwa Abdul Wahid is running for the presidency, making her the first woman to run for this position in
     
     



    Former Kurdistan Alliance deputy Sarwa Abdul Wahid announced on Sunday, that she would run for the presidency, which makes her the first woman to run for this position in Iraq.
     
     


     
     
    Iraqi first female presidential candidate calls for televised debate Iraqi first female presidential candidate, Sarwa Abdul Wahid, called on Monday other candidates for a televised debate.
     
     
    Journalist, 's rights activist and local Erbil political figure, Sarwa Abdul Wahid is running for the presidency, making her the first woman to run for this position in
     
     

    Sarwa Abdul Wahid: From journalist to first woman candidate to run for the presidency of
     
     



    MIDDLE EAST MONITOR quotes Sarwa stating:

    This position did not give women the opportunity to take over sovereign positions, although the Constitution ensured equal opportunities and partnership.  I run today as a Kurdish Iraqi, independent of any political party, and without the support of any political party and without political consensus. However, I run and represent all the Iraqi national forces and women who are being marginalised by some parties.

    It's a cermonial post.  So maybe the thing to do is to appoint someone for ceremonial reasons?  The Iraq War has destroyed the lives of Iraqi women.  The US government worked overtime to appoint fundamentalists who would destroy women's rights.  Maybe it can start to make real amends by backing her?  Maybe Hillary Clinton can back her?  Show some of that support for women she's always talking about but never offering?

    Meanwhile THE NATIONAL notes, "Two other Kurds – former Goran MP Sardar Abdullah and Iraq’s ambassador to Rome Omar Barzinji – have also nominated themselves."  Regardless, it's a ceremonial post.  And it remains empty -- as does the post of prime minister.

    On the latter, THE SAUDI GAZETTE reports a development:


    SOURCES with close knowledge of internal political consultations have asserted that among the names being floated by political groups for Iraq’s premiership include that of Mazin Al-Eshaiker.

    Several observers have said that Al-Eshaiker might have better chances in case Adel Abulmahdi is not able to grab the opportunity of becoming Iraq’s next prime minister.

    Sources said that the political powers had reached a shortlist of candidates for the prime minister position on two conditions: One who would not belong to any party and two, did not hold any position in the previous governments.

    Al-Eshaiker meets both conditions.




    Meanwhile protests continue in Basra.

    After months of protests, residents of Shat Al-Arab in are still falling ill due to water pollution. "They addressed our issues..in the media only", says one resident.
     
     



    started again with a tent in Abu Al-Khaseeb area. MPs joined tribal sheikhs & college graduates. They wanted water; you gave them bullets & coffins. I wouldn’t call them Baathists or ISIS infiltrators. They’ll light up the sky like a Katy Perry music video.
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    Kat's "Kat's Korner: SCARECROW remains a classic album" went up yesterday.  And Cindy Sheehan updated: