Sadr, Doing Iran’s Bidding, But for How Long?

Karl at Protein Wisdom:

With the Iraqi Army defeating Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Basra, the L.A. Times has moved on to tell its readers how terrible things might get in Najaf.  Buried in the middle of the piece, however, is a bit about the battle for Basra:

This time, the grand ayatollahs have declined to aid the incendiary cleric.

Three days into the Basra campaign, Grand Ayatollah Najafi issued a fatwa, or religious opinion or edict, that declared the Iraqi government as the only force in the country with the right to bear arms.

His son, Sheik Ali Najafi, left little doubt that the clergy had backed the Iraqi army operations.

“We see this as a positive improvement. . . . The people want the government to control the streets and the law to be enforced. No other groups,” he said, sitting in his study, furnished with cushions, a laptop and a clock bearing his father’s portrait.

Their stance is a gamble. An influential cleric who is knowledgeable about talks between the Sadr movement and the grand ayatollahs described the situation in bleak terms: The government is weak, and Sadr aides now acknowledge privately that they have lost control of members who are receiving support from Iran.

The opposition of the clerics to the Mahdi Army will likely be ignored by the Juan Coles and Matthew Yglesisases, who prefer to pass along Sadrist propaganda.  The establishment media will likely do the same, particularly with regard to the Iranian meddling in Iraq.

Well, this would seem to confirm my comparison the other day of the role of Sadr to LOTR’s Saruman. (OK, a little geeky, but can you find anyone who a:) Doesn’t understand the comparison, and b:) can think of a better parallel in the popular culture?)

It also confirms what I have said for some time, now as regards the l;eft hitting the prayer mats every night for some way they can call Iraq a failure, and working continually working toward that end.

But what it also does is confirm that the real power being fought, is Iran.  Clearly, Iran wants a Shiite government in Iraq. Iran, you see, has a history of this kind of activity in other places in the middle east, this setting up an proxy army for itself, which claims to be a native uprising. Lebenon, for example, where Hezbollah is the Iran’s army. It’s always truck me as odd that our leftist brothers here in the states can never quite figure that one out. That may be worth a post all by itself sometime, to explore the dynamics of that.

There is something to be said for the idea that Sadr has given his betters in Iran failure after failure. At the same time, however, this is a war of attrition, and with all such wars, there’s no hope of winning all at a go. And in any event, Iran has some history here, as well, again, the comparison to Lebenon and Hezbollah leaps to mind. As things now stand, and given that Iran as Sadr and his militia to do it’s bidding, it has nothing whatever to lose by continuing to supply them for as long as they’re willing to battle against Maleki and the Iraqi government.

Perhaps the most important thing to recognize, here, to aid in your understanding of all of this, is that all this in the middle east is not a war of country against country, but a war of culture vs culture… a war that Islam itself was supposed to cure, by placing both cultures under the one religion. It didn’t work, obviously, any better than separation of the two cultures by means of an artificial physical border did. The religion factionalized, along the same cultural lines that the war was originally about. I have been saying for many years that culture trumps government, and so it is, here.

All that said, it would appear that Maleki has, for the moment the upper hand. This advantage wold appear to me to be based as much on the perceptions of the people if Iraq that they have the ability for the first time in many generations, to make a better life for themselves, and so they reject the war as it’s been fought for the last few thousand years. How long this lasts, seems to me dependant on how much support from the rest of the world Maleki has. Inclduing that of the US.

Over at OTB, James has noted that TV watching just isn’t the same. He notes an AdAge article:

Just because your favorite dramas and comedies are back on the air after the writers strike doesn’t mean you’re necessarily watching them. A preliminary look at ratings of returning programs on the big broadcast networks reveals that the “majority of original programming has failed to return to its pre-strike levels among key demos,” according to Havas media-buying shop MPG. The firm found that audiences are “coming back to some of the shows, but not most of them,” said Nina Kanter, VP-director of communications analysis at MPG.

[…]

There are legitimate reasons for the ratings declines. Some shows have seen their competition alter as networks rearrange their schedules. CBS’s “NCIS” and “Criminal Minds” now face Fox’s “American Idol,” for instance. Because most networks put the bulk of their marketing spending into promos that run on their own air, it’s quite possible that TV audiences, turned off by repeats and strike-replacement programming, didn’t get those messages, according to MPG’s analysis.

Some returning shows are doing well. NBC’s “The Office” and “Scrubs” have demonstrated improved post-strike ratings, MPG said, though both have aired without regular competitor “Grey’s Anatomy” on the air. CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” also posted ratings gains compared to its pre-strike performance, but the sitcom may also have benefited from a guest appearance by singer Britney Spears.

Says James:

It may just be that the traditional model has been overtaken by events, with the strike-forced hiatus helping push trends along.

I suppose it to go far deeper than this. The way we were watching TV was a habit. if viewers are not rushing back to their sets then perhaps the shows they were watching were successful not because they were GOOD, particularly, anymore, but because it was an ingrained habit. A habit which got broken for them by the strike. People have found other ways to spend their time.

Look, let’s be honest; Commercial TV, particularly the big three, have been coasting for a long while, and so too have the writers of the shows that they transmit. When the people paying the newly inflated writers fees look at all of this, one wonders if they’ll consider that they made a bad bargain in the agreement with the writer’s unions.

But is there something deeper, going on here? I think so, … something as regards unions… and it’s something we’d better figure out quickly.

Certainly, the union movement as a whole didn’t do itself any favors with this writer’s strike.  It is they, and not the entertainment companies that got the blame for TV shows going missing for an extended period. They’re not exactly winning the popularity contest. There’s a lot of viewer resentment, directed at the Unions and their members. It’s a major reason for the drop-off in veiwers.

So what did demands for more money gain the writers?  Viewership has dropped in dramatic fashion. Their audience has been cut by half, and much of what is left is annoyed with them.  So what they’re getting, now is a bigger percentage of a far smaller pie. A pie which is not likely to start growing, again, given the number of customers….(read that, viewers) they’ve succeeded in alienating.  Where did the viewers go? These people simply found other ways to spend their time, once the Unions were successful in ruining the gravy train that modern Television shows have become.

Here’s the basic that most unions won’t bother even thinking about, much less telling you:

Unions are based on the idea that there is no such thing as competition. That, for example, if the prices go up at American car makers, that the car buyer won’t have any choices to avoid those higher costs. Now, you’d think they’d have learned the lesson from the Japanese.  But, no; they keep playing this like they’re the only game in town.. and they invariably feign shock when people walk across the street to deal with Honda, or whoever.  Indeed, the little secret to the success of Japan, Korea, and so on, is directly attributable to the American Auto unions. The unions drove American car buyers directly to the waiting arms of the Japanese, the Germans, the Koreans, and whoever else, and have bankrupted the American companies they’ve been claiming to be in partnership with, costing many

In much the same way, the writer’s unions have been successful at burning down the television industry. Disaffected customers simply take their time elsewhere.

And so it goes… Every single place where unions come into the picture, the ultimate failure of the business is an eventuality.

Name any major league sport you’d care to. Tell me, for example how the average family of four can afford to pay for the tickets to go to an NFL game. Why are they so expensive? Unions.  Many teams are being pushed to the very edge of moving, because of salary demands from the Unions. They will cease to exist.

The one industry… and I hesitate to use the word in this context… which isn’t failing as a result of Union involvement… the one bright spot for Unions… the one place where membership isn’t falling off, and the one place they’re getting what they consider to be proper recognition… is Government. Then again, government is the one place where competition isn’t allowed. Still, the added costs that unions invoke, are always there. No biggie, of course… in the case of government, it’s simplicity itself to raise taxes to cover these added costs. (No wonder the Democrats are in the pockets of the Unions!)

The Democratic candidates – Obama has the edge, he’s a rock star. He’s galvanized the youth vote of this country, but I have yet to see what he has done to take the highest office in the land. He is no Martin Luther King and his campaign, like all others, is backed by people with deep pockets.”

Helen Thomas, via Newsbusters.

Says Billy Beck:

“Yet in recent years Russia has quietly become the world’s top producer of oil, in part by drilling wells as deep as 40,000 feet — far below the graveyards of T-Rex and his Mesozoic buddies.”

No matter what else about this Motor Trend item, if that’s a fact, then how does the biogenic theory of oil square it?

The answer is, obviously, that it CAN’T.

And it’s interesting to note that the abiogenic theory has been accepted in Russia for years… which is perhaps part of the reason they’re having more success of late. Well, that and they don’t have the Enviro-whackos preventing them from drilling where the oil is.

I’ll tell you this, Billy, we’ve seen so much garbage of late about ‘peak oil, and other such energy gloom and doom… most of it pure speculation. And to prove it, the next time you hear someone talking to you about how short we are on crude oil, get them to explain to you the abiologic theory.  I’ll guarantee you, they’ve never heard of it, most of them. .. thus proving that they’re not as knowledgeable about energy and our future as they claim…. and that thereby their claims about energy calamity, and what they want to do about it, should be checked carefully for maggots.

Decided today to try to start making some changes to the colors… not so much re-arranging the room as painting it, just to freshen things up a bit. I was going for a brighter, sunnier feel. Maybe it’s springtime seeping in.

Not bad, so far. I may offer this as a theme to the WordPress folks when I get done with it.

A little brush up yet, though.

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Limbaugh likes to say on his radio program, that he IS balance for the liberal press. And in many ways, he’s quite right. So an interesting angle on this shows up today in an article by John Harris and Jim Vandiehei at The Politico:

My, oh my, but weren’t those fellows from ABC News rude to Barack Obama at this week’s presidential debate.

Nothing but petty, process-oriented questions, asked in a prosecutorial tone, about the Democratic front-runner’s personal associations and his electability. Where was the substance? Where was the balance?

Where indeed. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides have been complaining for months about imbalance in news coverage. For the most part, the reaction to her from the political-media commentariat has been: Stop whining.

That’s still a good response now that it is Obama partisans — some of whom are showing up in distressingly inappropriate places — who are doing the whining.

The shower of indignation on Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos over the last few days is the clearest evidence yet that the Clintonites are fundamentally correct in their complaint that she has been flying throughout this campaign into a headwind of media favoritism for Obama.

Yes, indeed. Of course when do they start complaining? As with complaints and hatred spewed at Limbaugh,their whining and hatred only shows up when actual balance happens.

There are many indications, both historical and current, that the press in general leans left. The polling of pressrooms around the county perhaps being of greater import than their output. But the complaints of those outside the press about the supposedly right-wing media, which are totally laughable at the off, take on a downright hilarious tenor when the complaints involve an argument between two Democrat candidates.

in the end, I tend to doubt that the overt bias being shown by the press in this case is going to affect the outcome of the Democratic nomination all that much. Let’s face it, the campaign that Hillary Clinton has been running isn’t worth much. If the organizational skill, and clearness of thought being put into this campaign is what a Hillary Clinton White House would look like, I fear for the nation should she ever attain that office.

As it stands, however, I rather doubt she’s going to…. but as the authors point out, that does not mean that it is not going to affect the general election. While I have serious doubts about whether or not the Democratic Party is going to be able to fall in behind one candidate or the other about there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of issue as to whether or not the press is going to be able fall in behind one candidate or the other. With the glaring exception of the other night, it has been nothing more than a cheerleading section For Obama, as regards the race between them and Hillary Clinton.

There are several indications of this, not least of which the idea that the press has been yawning, whenever the subject of Obama’s ‘warm’ relationships with William Ayers and Bernadette Dohm, and the not-so Reverand Wrght shows up.

And while it’s true that John McCain has been getting warm treatment from the liberal press, I fully expect that one treatment and once the Democrats barn dance in Denver is done. there has been much in the way of vindication. The last year or so that the relationship between John McCain and the liberal press is less than genuine and fairly brittle. my take is that the gloves are going to come off, following Denver. At which point I think I can fairly well guarantee that all the complaints about the media being biased against Barrack Obama, will be forgotten… the blance of left vs Right in the press being reset the way Liberals want it balanced… in their favor.

Addendum:  (David L)

The ‘rats have been moaning for decades that the dumb hicks from the sticks keep forfeiting their economic self-interest to vote for their cultural self-interest.  Tom Maguire, Just One Minute throws some cold water on the ‘rats:

That is all very well, but I am going to take a bold step in a brand new direction and offer the notion that working class Americans aren’t idiots.  People who wonder where the Democratic vision of prosperity through higher taxes and stricter regulation would take us need look no further than Europe.  And I will echo Michelle Obama by saying that in my adult lifetime I have never been proud of Europe’s ability to create jobs or absorb immigrants. 

The road to prospherity sure does not go through Europe.

As Dan Rather might say: when your donkey breaks wind, you can’t stick the wind back in the ass.    It sure appears that the phone call which prompted the Texas Departmnet of Public safety raid on as the FLDS compound near Eldorado was a hoax,  Eldorado Success; Ace, Ace of Spaides HQ; Dr. Rusty Shackleford, Jawa Report.

DRJ, Patterico’s Pontifications, doesn’t seem to think the false report will make much difference in the State of Texas’s case.  I believe she is a lawyer.

I not sure exactly what penalty Rozita Swinton will fact, but there ought to some warm spot for a pervert who would cause four hundred children to be ripped from their mothers.   Then look at the bright side, Janet Reno is staying in Florida.

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John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has an interesting interview up with Will Breazeale, who is an Iraqi vet running for Congress.  In the interview, Breazeale tells an interesting story regarding Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer;

“I was a protocol officer for a 3 star general on my second deployment to the Middle-East and sure enough, here comes Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid in the door for their briefing before they go to see soldiers. And they got so frustrated from their lack of knowledge of military operations, like the acronyms we use or even what an up armored Humvee was, between level 2 or 3 armor, that they got frustrated, got up in the middle of this briefing with Lt. General Whitcomb, commander of Third Army, and left in disgust. And I said, “who are these people to do that?”

Go and read.

Is Barack Obama giving a stump speech, or just engaging in self-parody?  Watch the video, and you decide:

[wp_youtube]WynLgJFBxSs[/wp_youtube]

BO’s promise of “real” economic progress is an empty one. Obama simply does not understand economics. Barack Obama is economically ignorant, Investor’s Business Daily:

Fiscal Policy: In blowing a slam-dunk question on capital gains taxes in Wednesday night’s debate, Barack Obama revealed not only a flimsy grasp of economics, but a bitter envy that drives his politics.

Obama is simply too dumb to be President.

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I am a wee bit of a fan of the national spelling bee, not becausse I could ever spel worth a darn,,  Rather I enjoy the pure mano e mano aspect of the competition.

Gotta give Mrs. Clinton credit for one thing.   She enjoys a good fight.   Mrs. Clinton is calling BO out and BO is not taking up the challlenge.   How in the heck can BO be expected to stand up to John McCain, if wouldn’t even stand up to Mrs. Clinton, Jim Gerhaghty, National Review.

Hillary: Well, we were both asked some pretty tough questions, and you know, that’s part of what happens in a debate and in a campaign. And I know he spent all of yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. But you know, being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressure you face inside the White House. And in fact, you know, when the going gets tough, you just can’t walk away

John McCain declined early parole from the Hanoi Hilton.  Yet, BO isn’t willing to face Mrs. Clinton again.

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• In talking with a few people, I’ve decided that instead of going for an all in one shot theme change, I’m going to try and use the existing framework, and do a slow change over time. Dabble with the colors, and the placement, over a period of weeks. Several reasons, mostly because I don’t need the downtime on the site, and I don’t want to design in a hurry. Took me nearly half a year to get the thing working well when I first set it up, and about a year in total to get it tuned just so. Darned if I want to go through that again, particularly during an election cycle.
• Speaking of that, the fallout continues from the debate of night before last. Obama, predictably, has started falling, but not as much as his performance would seem to warrant. I make the assumption that the reason is Hillary Clinton’s performance wasn’t any better, despite what crowing I’m seeing from her cheering section. Undecideds are still running around 10%… a huge number for a race this far along, and indicative of a pair of candidates who are equally problematic, for the Democrats. That’s OK, guys, the rest of us don’t think they’re worth much either. Sucks to be you.
• I see that the New York Times is reporting record losses. We’ve discussed the reasons for this time and time again. I take great comfort in the fact that ol’ Pinch will be huddling fearfully down in the bilges (Port side, of course) when the gray lady finally goes down.
• Google, meanwhile, saw a 30% rise in profits in Q1, and their shares are peaking. The two founders made a quick buck… around 2 billion of them,  by picking just now to sell off a lot of their stock.
• So, Bloomberg is looking forward to an adult in the White House? Well, I guess that would be comforting to someone like Bloomberg, who so clearly needs adult supervision.
• The Pope headed to New York City, today. 
• Maybe there’s no connection to the papal visit, but I see Stars fell on Indiana, last night. Well, night before last, actually.
• I also see a quake woke a lot of people up a bit early from Kentucky to Wisconsin, this morning. Supposedly, a 5.4 quake. I wonder if there’s any connection between the quake and the Indiana bit? And for that matter, the Pope’s visit.  The Vatican special effects department must be working overtime on this one. (And no, I’m not being disrespectful; I suspect he’d enjoy the joke)
• I see Sue Myrick has called for Jimmy Carter’s passport to be revoked. Well, that’s a first step, anyway.
• What in the world do I have to do to get the attention of Memeorandum?  We’re making newspapers all over the country, our hitrates have doubled, and yet, nary a peep out of them… depite our running a right column link for them. Why am I wasting right-column space?

Abort Clinton!! Presidents should be planned and wanted

Shame on ABC: Enough Distractions!
ABC let voters down with last night’s abysmal debate. Bad debates aren’t just painful to watch-they actually hurt the country. Tell the media “enough distractions – ask about issues that affect people’s lives”.

MoveOn.org, via, Michelle Malkin..  

The ABC debate was no painful that few viewers switched off.   Then I am sure the debate was painful to George Sorros.

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Mrs. Clinton and Barack “BO” Obama agree on most issues. One issue on which they agree is that that the other can not be trusted with respect to the militant radicial organization known as the Weather Underground. By iimplication means they can’t trusted to fight to global war no teeror.  So who, Mrs. Clinton or BO is right?   Jake Tapper, ABC News, explains both Mrs. Clinton’s and BO Obama’s connection to the Weather Underground.   

Byron York, National Review, neatly wraps both Camp Clinton and Camp Obama’s problem:

Given Evans and Rosenberg, how can Clinton credibly criticize Obama? But given Ayers, how can Obama credibly criticize Clinton? No one has room to accuse the other of anything.

Both Mrs. Clinton and BO are right.   Neither one has any credibility with respect to fighting terrorism.   The winner is John McCain.

Hat tip photo:  Coinservative Outpost.

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Well, it’s about time you figured this one out, Bill. Jimmy Doohan’s dislike of the man is Trek legend, and it appears that only Shattner never knew about all this.

Self-centered, are we?

Sheesh.

Addenudum: (David L)

As a recovering Trekkie I can speak to this,  Star Trek was a rare show with two pilots.   While NBC liked the first pilot, they wanted certain changes.   For one, in the first pilot, a.k.a. Star Trek I, the executive officer, second in comand, was played by a girl,  the future Majel Roddenberry.  In the second pilot, and Star Trek II, Roddenberry played Nurse Chapel.   What a bust, from exec, to nurse.

In fact about the only thing NBC did like was the Captain, Christopher PIke,  as played by Jeffery Hunter.   Indeed I concur, Hunter’s Captain Pike was a much better character than Shatner’s Captain Kirk.   Sadly when it came time shot the second pilot, Hunter was no longer available.   

Ss but for a ficke twist of fate, there would been no need for a  Captain Kirk and Jimmy Doohan’s life would have been dintinctly less miserable, and the series much better.

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