As reported earlier, the Mahdi army had been facing off against the Iraqi government and army in the city of Basra after the gov’t ordered the Shiite militia lay down their arms and staged a siege on the city. 
Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, founder of the Mahdi army, on Sunday ordered the militia to cease fire, and submitted a list of demands to the gov’t. 

The substance of Mr. Sadr’s statement, released Sunday afternoon, was hammered out in elaborate negotiations over the past few days with senior Iraqi officials, some of whom traveled to Iran to meet with Mr. Sadr, according to several officials involved in the discussions.

Still, though fighting was reported to have died down by late afternoon in Basra, it continued in Baghdad, including heavy combat by Iraqi and American troops and aircraft in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, casting uncertainty on the deal.

The negotiations with Mr. Sadr were seen as a serious blow for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who had vowed that he would see the Basra campaign through to a military victory and who has been harshly criticized even within his own coalition for the stalled assault.

Last week, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Kadir al-Obeidi, conceded that the government’s military efforts in Basra have met with far more resistance than was expected. Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the Basra campaign and that he is in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival, for a way out.

And it was a chance for Mr. Sadr to flaunt his power, commanding both armed force and political strength that can forcefully challenge the other dominant Shiite parties, including Mr. Maliki’s Dawa movement and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. In the statement, Mr. Sadr told militia members “to end all military actions in Basra and in all the provinces” and “to cooperate with the government to achieve security.”

But Mr. Sadr also demanded concessions, including that the government grant a general amnesty for his followers, release all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of crimes and bring back “the displaced people who have fled their homes as a result of military operations.”

It was not clear if the government was willing to meet those demands.

Mr. Sadr’s willingness to negotiate represents a significant shift from his stance in 2004, when he ordered his militia to fight to the death in the holy city of Najaf, and suggests that his political sophistication and strategic skills have grown in the last two years.

In response to all of the action in Basra and Baghdad American military forces have been launching airstrikes on strategic locations in neighborhoods, as well as sending armored vehicles on patrol.  According to unofficial reports around 500 have been killed or injured as a result of the violence.

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Mahdi army militiamen are currently engaging Iraqi army and Iraqi government forces with greater frequency and intensity as of this week, as the government sent their troops in to wrest control of the city of Basra from the Shiite militia founded by Moktada al-Sadr.

Moktada al-Sadr is the Shiite cleric who called for the ceasefire last year that has helped in conjuncture with “the surge” to hold violence in Iraq to a lower level in recent memory.

Senior members of several political parties said Saturday that the operation, ordered by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, had been poorly planned. The growing discontent adds a new level of complication to the American-led effort to demonstrate that the Iraqi government had made strides toward being able to operate a functioning country and keep the peace without thousands of American troops.

Since the Basra assault began Tuesday, violence has spread to Shiite districts of Baghdad and other places in Iraq where Shiite militiamen hold sway, raising fears that security gains often attributed to a yearlong American troop buildup could be at risk. Any widespread breakdown of a cease-fire called by Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who founded the Mahdi Army, could bring the country right back to the sectarian violence that racked it in 2006 and 2007.

There are many things that must be considered in regards to this series of events:

-How this affects the locals, many of whom already distrust the leadership of the current Prime Minister
-How this affects our military, troop actions, and withdrawls or increased numbers of troops
-And how this could influence the Presidential elections in regards to what candidates say they might or might not do to handle these kinds of situations in Iraq should they continue.

We’ll be sure to stay abreast of the situation, and report more as it plays out.

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Coming up to the date when Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus will tell Congress the plans he has worked out for the U.S. Military’s future in Iraq, Dubbya has come out again to paint a lovely picture of the Iraq he views (based nowhere in reality) where things are really just ducky, and it’s Congress being overly critical of the gov’t in Iraq that’s causing so many problems. Way to win them over there George.

Bush rejected criticisms of the war’s progress on Thursday.

“Some members of Congress decided the best way to encourage progress in Baghdad was to criticize and threaten Iraq’s leaders while they’re trying to work out their differences,” he said. “But hectoring was not what the Iraqi leaders needed.”

Hectoring? WTF does that mean you ask? Did Bush just create another Bushism while trying to say something like “heckling”? Nope. Hectoring is a legit word, observe-

hec·tor (hktr)
n.
A bully.
v. hec·tored, hec·tor·ing, hec·tors
v.tr.
To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
v.intr.
To behave like a bully; swagger.
[Latin Hectr, Hektor, from Greek Hektr.]

To behave like a bully; swagger.

And if anyone knows how to bully and use swagger, it’s this guy-

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I’ve been grumpy over the stale mate between Obama and Clinton lately.  It’s really not all that exciting anymore.  I’m feeling a little run down by the constant name calling between the candidates (and the voters).  It’s just getting so… I dunno… blah. 

We just want a Democratic candidate!!

They say that technically, Clinton has no chance of winning.  Obama will statistically have more deletage votes. 

Newsweek broke it down for us a few weeks ago:

…no matter how you cut it, Obama will almost certainly end the primaries with a pledged-delegate lead, courtesy of all those landslides in February. Hillary would then have to convince the uncommitted superdelegates to reverse the will of the people.

Even coming off a big Hillary winning streak, few if any superdelegates will be inclined to do so. For politicians to upend what the voters have decided might be a tad, well, suicidal.

So what good can come out of such a futile battle? Why should we be happy to bear witness to the bad blood developing between Obama and Clinton?

VOTER REGISTRATION.

Get this. 

Democratic voters and registrations are at an all time high.  The Democratic party is spanking the Republicans in voter turnouts and registrants.  For example, in Pennsylvania Democrats have topped 4 million registered voters, the first time either party in the state has crossed that threshold.  That’s a four percent increase.

The Republicans, on the other hand, lost nearly one percent to 3.2 million. 

What this means is that no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, the voters will be out en mass in November.

Look out McCain.  Here we come.

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Here are a few things you’ll take away after watching part 2 of Bush’s War:

• The military planning of the Iraq invasion never seriously took into account the amount of civilian unrest that would follow the ousting of Saddam. 
• Our government actually thought our military would be withdrawn from Iraq by December 2003.  That’s eight months after the initial invasion.
• We put all our eggs in the “weapons of mass destruction basket” and our strategy was shattered when they never materialized.

The series ends at the beginning of the 2006 troop surge. 

Absent from Frontline’s analysis of the Iraq invasion is Gen. Petraeus who spearheaded the new surge plan that helped reinforce our “clear, hold, and build” strategy.  Absent also is the cost of the war in American and international deaths and in economic strain.

The final words are a grim reminder of where we are today after five years of an American presence in Iraq and seven years in Afghanistan.  Are the narrators words a bit too liberal?  Should we be thinking with more optimism?  Watch and read for yourself.

NARRATOR:

Violence is down in Iraq. They are cautiously calling clear, hold and build a success. But at a cost. The troops and reserves are stretched dangerously thin. The military worries how long the surge can be sustained. In his last State of the Union address, George W. Bush made a final plea to history …

PRESIDENT BUSH:

“The mission in Iraq has been difficult and trying for our nation. But it is in the vital interest of the United States that we succeed. We must do the difficult work today so that years form now, people will look back and say that this generation rose to the moment, prevailed in a tough fight, and left behind a more hopeful region and a safer America.”

NARRATOR:

Soon Bush’s war will be handed to someone new.

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Could this race be any more maddening??

Obama and Clinton have AMAZINGLY been neck and neck for months now. The most recent polls say that same thing; the voters aren’t budging. I don’t know about you, but I need a margarita.

We now return you to tonights feature show, “Bush’s War“, part 2, on PBS.

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Frontline ”Bush’s War” part 1 on PBS: 

After watching a majority of the two and a half hour first installment of “Bush’s War” on PBS last night, I asked myself, “Where’s Bush?”. 

He was a mysteriously absent character in the march our nation took towards war with Iraq.  For a series that had devoted itself with great detail and accuracy to document one of our nations biggest blunders, I’m a little disturbed at how blind sided I feel that I’ve misplaced blame.

It’s been easy pointing a finger at Bush all these years.  He’s essentially an educated yokel.  Blunders seem like they come naturally to a character who spoke of the internet in the plural form and confused Austria with Australia.

The truth of the situation (as Frontline reported it) showed Vice President Dick Cheney and (then) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld throwing their weight around the White House with vicious tenacity.  

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that Bush is blameless.  He still signed his name on documents that (some would argue) illegally gave him power to make decisions that superceed the votes of Congress, the House of Representatives, and ultimately the American public (see: Patriot Act and torture bill of 2006). 

But part one of the series essentially outlined a war that was orchestrated and devised by a close knit group of high powered officials who whispered opinions into the ear of our President.  I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise.  Bush has long been called a puppet.

Part one left us a week before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.  Up to this point the focus was Afghanistan.  It was clearly determined the attacks of 9/11 were directly linked with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  Not Iraq. 

Do you hear that people?  9/11 was never directly linked to Iraq.  I’m glad we’ve gotten the air cleared on that one.  I’m tired of arguing otherwise with the less informed.

Tonight we’ll dive right into the invasion of Iraq and the massive bumbles that will ensue.  If you missed part one (or can’t be home to watch part two tonight), PBS is airing the complete 4 1/2 hour series online at PBS.com. If you can only watch one program about the Iraq and Afghanistan war, this would be the one to catch.

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Just when you thought politics couldn’t get any weirder, Jack Kevorkian is running for Congress.  That’s right.  The man jailed for 8 years for assisting the suicides of over 100 individuals is running for a seat in Michigan’s 9th district.

In the 1990s Kevorkian became one of the most prominent and polarizing figures in the debate over euthanasia by assisting in some 130 suicides and for his outspoken advocacy of the “right to die.”

Kevorkian, who was paroled in 2007, said he will run as an independent for a congressional seat representing the Detroit suburbs, near the area where he presided at dozens of suicides in cheap hotel rooms and the back of his rusty van.

He was convicted after a CBS news program aired a video showing Kevorkian administering lethal drugs to a 52-year-old man suffering from debilitating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

His candidacy will pit Kevorkian against Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg and Democrat Gary Peters in Michigan’s 9th District, which includes the upscale suburbs of Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham. Political analysts rate the race between the two main candidates could be close.

Kevorkian had been required to gather 3,000 voter signatures on a petition in order to qualify for the ballot.

As a condition of his parole, Kevorkian vowed not to assist with any suicides although he said he would continue to lobby for the legalization of assisted suicide in the United States.

His run is a long shot to say the least… but who knows?  Stranger things have happened.

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The price for the freedom of Iraq and the security of our nation?

*4,000 Americans killed in Iraq.

A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000.

*The 4,000 figure is according to an Associated Press count that includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.

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Come and get it.

The Official Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Payment Schedule - (for Federal Tax Returns Received and Processed by April 15, 2008):

Still haven’t received your stimulus payment!? Look here!

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