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"The National Archives will no longer enter into secret agreements
with federal agencies that want to withdraw records from public access
on Archives shelves."
STATE WATCH

ILLINOIS: Former Gov. George Ryan (R) is found guilty on all 18 counts
of corruption charges against him.

COLORADO: Last week, Gov. Bill Owens (R) vetoed a bill that would have
allowed over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.

ALASKA: The campaign to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
hires a new controversial PR firm.

CALIFORNIA: A century after San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, the city
remains woefully unprepared.
BLOG WATCH

THINK PROGRESS: New Bush policy: All gays should be celibate.

TAPPED: The White House "overhaul" continues as Bush picks new OMB
head.

POLITICAL ANIMAL: Does the "General's revolt" blur the principle of
civilian control of the military?

TAX PROF: Cheney tax return shows Katrina tax benefits for non-Katrina
charitable contributions.
DAILY GRILL

"Congress, Bush and FEMA / People across our land / Together have come
to rebuild us / And we join them hand-in-hand!"
-- Song sung to First Lady Laura Bush by dozens of children from
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to the tune of "Hey Look Me Over,"
4/17/06

VERSUS

"Nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina...a hastily improvised
$10 billion effort by the federal government has produced vast sums of
waste and misspent funds, an array of government audits and outside
analysts have concluded."
-- Washington Post, 4/14/06
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Progress Report

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Politics with an Attitude: Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen
Colbert talks to Campus Progress. Right-wingers seem scared of us.
Find out why here.


by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

April 18, 2006
IRAQ
Fiddling While Baghdad Burns
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
THINK FAST
Coffee and Donuts Not Included
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IRAQ
Fiddling While Baghdad Burns

On Dec. 15, 2005, Iraqis went to the polls in large numbers to elect a
permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly. But the Iraqis have yet
to witness the fruits of their efforts. "Four months of political
paralysis" have thwarted the formation of a unity government; Shiite,
Kurdish, and Sunni legislators continue to tussle for political
control. While their elected representatives have dithered, hundreds
of Iraqis have been slaughtered in sectarian violence. Over this
four-month period, 225 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq.
And yet, Iraqi leaders have little sense of urgency and continue to
miss opportunities to bring the country together. The biggest sticking
point in the political process has been whether incumbent Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari would serve a new four-year term.
Jaafari's Dawa party said yesterday it does not plan to put forward a
different nominee despite pressure from other political parties and
President Bush. The announcement casts new doubt as to whether a
"quick end to the stalemate" can be achieved.

EXPLANATION OF THE STALEMATE: As a result of the Dec. 2005 elections,
the Shiite alliance – comprised mainly of the religious Dawa Party,
led by Jaafari, and the more secular Supreme Council for the
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) party, led by Abdul Aziz Hakim – commanded
128 of the 275 total seats. Because the Shiites were unable to gain a
majority of the seats, they were forced to make concessions with
Kurdish and Sunni factions, who control almost all of the other seats,
in order to form a government and fill important cabinet posts. The
Bush administration has blamed Jaafari for the delays in bringing the
parties together, but the prime minister has fought back against the
U.S. efforts to oust him. The administration is pushing for a SCIRI
candidate, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, to be the next prime minister, an
individual who lost to Jaafari in February and whose return may divide
the Shiite alliance. On the other hand, some suggest if Jaafari
insists on remaining in office, "then Iraq will continue to be
divided."
NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ FORGOTTEN: In late Nov. 2005,
the Bush administration unveiled with great fanfare its National
Strategy for Victory In Iraq. Nearly five months later, the
administration has retrogressed by its own standards. The first step
in the political plan to stand up the Iraqi government was to "isolate
hardened enemy elements." But according to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), "98
percent of the insurgency has now been transformed into Iraqis, far
outnumbering the small minority of foreign fighters." The second step
of the White House's plan was to engage "those outside the political
process." But through heavy-handed meddling in Iraq’s political
process, Bush has contributed to a political stalemate that has failed
to produce a unity government for the past four months. The third step
in the political track was to "build stable, pluralistic, and
effective national institutions." The first meeting of the Iraqi
parliament lasted only 30 minutes, and yesterday, it was announced
that "leaders canceled a much-awaited parliament session following
their failure to resolve a bitter dispute over the prime minister."

ESCALATING TENSIONS IN BAGHDAD: Through just the first half of April,
at least 48 U.S. soldiers have already died in Iraq, eclipsing the
total of 30 who died all of last month. The rate of casualties is at
the highest point since late last year. Reporting from inside Iraq
indicates an escalation in hostilities, particularly in Baghdad, which
serves as an important barometer of the country’s stability.
Yesterday, U.S. troops waged a seven-hour battle against Iraqi forces
in Baghdad that killed 50 insurgents and raised "fresh questions about
security in the capital." U.S. and Iraqi forces were forced to seal
off a prominent Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, signaling
"deteriorating security in a neighborhood where attacks...had ebbed in
recent months." The Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni Arab
political group, released a statement calling for calm and stating
that a "human disaster might occur."

UPDATE ON BUSH'S COUNTEROFFENSIVE: Just over a month ago, a headline
in the Washington Post blared, "Bush Goes On Offensive To Explain War
Strategy." The President subsequently delivered a series of speeches
that sought to convince the American public that he had a strategy for
victory in Iraq. After hearing Bush make his case, the American public
was not swayed. The USA Today reported the results of Bush’s efforts,
“Like a man on a treadmill, President Bush has gotten almost nowhere
making speeches over the past seven months to boost public support for
the war in Iraq. Political rhetoric is not a substitute for action;
both the Iraqi and American public desperately seek an alternative to
Bush's failed "stay the course" strategy. Seventy percent of Iraqis
favor a timetable for withdrawal, and 68 percent of Americans favor
the initiation of a drawdown. American Progress has a responsible
strategy of Strategic Redeployment from Iraq that refocuses the
attention on global security threats.

NO ACCOUNTABILITY: While each successive day in Iraq spotlights the
administration’s deeply flawed post-war plan, a chorus of retired
generals have raised their voices to demand accountability. Retired
Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former chief of the U.S. Central Command,
said it best: "We grow up in a culture where accountability, learning
to accept responsibility, admitting mistakes and learning from them
was critical to us. When we don't see that happening it worries us.
Poor military judgment has been used throughout this mission." Though
he has been at the forefront of the most egregious errors, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is not the only Iraq war architect who
deserves blame. Instead of being held accountable, many of those
administration officials who have so incompetently misled and
mismanaged the war have been given golden parachutes or promotions.
See the Progress Report's analysis of the Iraq war architects.

Under the Radar

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- RICE MEETS WITH BRUTAL AFRICAN DICTATOR,
CALLS HIM 'GOOD FRIEND' OF U.S.: Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro
Obiang Nguema is a "somewhat unsavory and corrupt character who seized
power in a 1979 coup" and "runs a regime regularly condemned by the
State Department for human rights violations, including torture,
beatings, abuse and deaths of prisoners and suspects." According to
one human rights official, he is "one of the most brutal, most corrupt
and unreconstructed dictators in the world." He's also a "good friend"
of the United States, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, who met with Nguema on Wednesday. The meeting was a reminder of
the Bush administration position on reform in Africa: you have to be
democratic, fight corruption, and promote market liberalization and
transparency -- unless you have oil. Equatorial Guinea is Africa's
third-largest oil exporter, though the crude has "done little to help
Equatorial Guinea's 540,000 people, some 400,000 of whom suffer from
malnutrition," the Washington Post editorializes. "The meeting with
Mr. Obiang was presumably a reward for his hospitable treatment of
U.S. oil firms, though we cannot be sure since the State Department
declined our invitation to comment."

CULTURE -- THE SMITHSONIAN SELLS OUT TO SHOWTIME: Last month the
cash-strapped Smithsonian Institution entered into a private contract
with Showtime Networks to create Smithsonian Networks, a new
television network. "As part of the deal, Smithsonian Networks was to
get the right of first refusal on commercial documentaries that relied
significantly on the museum's archives, curators or scientists." In
other words, filmmakers and historians who want to use Smithsonian
materials could be blocked if Showtime executives say so. PBS
documentarian Ken Burns called the policy "terrifying," and said it
"would have prohibited him from making some of his recent works." More
than 200 filmmakers, television executives, and academics have signed
a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, asking the
Smithsonian to annul the contract and hold public hearings. The Center
for American Progress has also filed a Freedom of Information Act
request asking that the contract be brought into the public eye. "I
was horrified that the Smithsonian would even contemplate a deal that
would give a for-profit broadcaster the right of first refusal," said
Nina Gilden Seavey, an Emmy-winning filmmaker and director of the
Documentary Center at George Washington University. "It is a fire sale
of the nation's history." American Progress will be hosting a public
briefing with Burns and American Progress Senior Fellow Carl Malamud
today.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- BOLTON LEADS EFFORT TO BLOCK NECESSARY
RENOVATIONS AT UN HEADQUARTERS: United Nations Ambassador John Bolton,
said in 1994, "If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10
stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." Now, Bolton is helping
to stall a $1.6 billion plan to renovate the "aging and dilapidated
headquarters of the United Nations." The "current impasse had arisen
when the United States emerged as the only country blocking $100
million that was to have been approved for the project by April 1."
Bolton has offered only $23.5 million, and the delays are costing
$225,000 a day and "jeopardizing the future of the entire project."
The U.N. has called the renovations "extremely urgent" because the
building "has not seen a major overhaul in its 60-year existence and
now violates safety and fire codes. The building is packed with
asbestos, has no sprinkler system and leaks about a quarter of its
heating." "We have reached a point in time where the building
continues to deteriorate and we have a great deal of member
consensus," Fritz Reuter of the U.N. said, "with the exception of the
United States."


Think Fast

$70.88: The price of a barrel of oil yesterday, a new intraday high,
and "about 60 cents more than the (non-inflation-adjusted) record set
just after Katrina." In Los Angeles, "motorists had to fork over $3.35
a gallon on Monday" for self-serve regular.

The railroad to nowhere: Sens. Trent Lott (R-MS) and Thad Cochran
(R-MS) “included $700 million in an emergency war spending bill to
relocate a Gulf Coast rail line that has already been rebuilt after
Hurricane Katrina at a cost of at least $250 million.” Budget
watchdogs “call it a gift to coastal developers and the casino
industry that would be paid for with money carved out of tight Katrina
relief funds."

The ancient city of Babylon, once home to one of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World, “has paid the price of war” in Iraq. “[Babylon] has
been ransacked, looted, torn up, paved over, neglected and roughly
occupied,” and some officials want to convert the area into “an Iraqi
theme park.”

Unlike the federal government, states are practicing fiscal constraint
and “are borrowing less for the first time in four years, the result
of soaring tax collections that have created budget surpluses in 42
states.”

The U.S. Geological Survey is planning to work with BP and Statoil to
find oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean "under the auspices of a flagship
scientific initiative intended to tackle global warming."

U.S. officials yesterday "threatened to force a United Nations vote on
sanctions against individuals for war crimes" committed in Darfur,
"after Russia and China said they would block a British-drafted list
to face a travel ban and assets freeze."

In late March, then Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that
wetlands loss had finally come to an end, with 715,300-acre gains
since 1997. It turns out she was counting artificial golf course water
hazards and farm impoundments. The Fish and Wildlife Service reports a
continued loss of 523,500 acres of natural wetlands during the same
time period.

Afghanistan's drug kingpins continue to flout the law. Only two major
traffickers have been arrested in the Western-funded war on drugs;
several dozen remain at large. The United Nations expects poppy
cultivation to rise sharply this year.

On at least a dozen occasions, federal judges have violated ethics
rules by presiding over lawsuits in which they had a financial
conflict or by failing to disclose expense-paid trips to resorts.

And finally, the Guardian headline says it all: “Ignore bloggers at
your peril, say researchers.” “Bloggers and internet pundits are
exerting a ‘disproportionately large influence’ on society, according
to a report by a technology research company.”

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