"Why, because they hate our freedom, our economic success, our well-deserved and well-earned wealth. What do you think, huh, that they have serious grievances? If they worked, they could maybe have a prosperous country; but they prefer to be lazy bums and to try to find ways of stealing our hard-earned money, our oil who's unconviently located abroad, and our precious bodily fluids."

And, as the International Labour Organisation shows, there are really a lot of very lazy people on this planet. Half the world's workers, roughly 1.400.000.000 people (yep, 1.4 bio, no typo here), earn less than 2$ a day.
That's not the kind of real news you're gonna see on cable news. I wonder why.

International Republican Institute says polls show Karzai is 43% ahead of everyone else, and wins with more than 50%, and doesn't need a 2nd round to win.

So, some clever guy in the administration finally realised that "anti-americanism is increasing all over the world". Well, no kidding. But wait, it's getting better: what are the actions proposed to change the tide? "Better information, more presence in foreign media, because foreigners have a bad image of the US and disapprove of US policies".
Right. It's not the policies that are wrong, it's just that furriners are misinformed. So we should expect a few more billions wasted in pointless propaganda, like the reformed US media targetting Arabs, notably Iraqis, which work just so well when everyone can tune on Al-Jazeera and see civilians bombed to smithereens by US firepower.
This New Strategy to win hearts and minds throughout the planet will really work well...

OK, most are locals, either insurgents wanting to frighten foreigners so that contractors will leave and US allies will withdraw, or just thugs wanting to make money by kidnapping Iraqis and foreigners. Yet a few recent cases may point to another shadowy force.

We're not there yet, but we're getting closer, with tens of dead and hundreds of wounded since Monday (and one dead US soldier, making me wonder if the 1'000 awful milestone won't be hit before next week).
This time, there's no major holy shrine the troopers should take care not to damage. But contrary to Najaf's 500.000 people, most of who supported only softly Sadr if not openly disliked him, you get a 2 mio urban area where people are fiercely loyal.
Oh, and notice that they now openly claim "thousands of deads in Najaf". Saddam must be ironically smiling in his cell, seeing how "well" the US Army deals with restless Shia.

Now, you can do it. Just look at the EU own environmental agency to see what a science-based report about global warming looks like, instead of the faith-based (or greed-based) non-science of Bushco.
And if you have the impression that every year, as models and data are more complete and accurate, predictions are getting worse, it's not you, it's really the case.

Iraq's new Dear Leader, freedom-loving Allawi, and his not-crooked buddies have now decided to impose curfew on Sadr City. That is, the huge 2-mio Shiites part of Baghdad, and the main stronghold of the Sadrist movement. Najaf, Karbala and Fallujah are 200-400.000 people cities. Here we speak of a huge slum that has more people than these cities put together, and where people are more pro-Sadr than anywhere else in Iraq.
Note also that the curfew goes from 4PM to 8AM. Yeah, right, the current Saddam-lite in charge is kind enough to turn Sadr City into a massive ghetto only 16 hours a day.
Someone is really trying hard to outdo Sharon by having his own bigger Gaza in Iraq. (not that I really expect them to be able to maintain the curfew, they would first have to send troopls patrolling the area 24 hours a day.

Courtesy of these evil-doers at Al-Jazeera, though I can't tell if it's the definitve, IGC, CPA, US and UN-approved one. Caution is necessary since the first 2 alleged future "presidents" both ended up refusing the office (the first one last week, the second - Adnan Pachachi - just this morning). But at the moment, we have to assume that the government, which was partly devised by the future PM, Iyad Allawi, will be coopted by the main players - that is, until some guerrilla decides to go after them and car-bomb a couple of ministers.
As announced in a previous diary, the Sunni al-Yawir, apparently leader of a powerful tribe, seems to have been coopted by the IGC and reluctantly by UN and US (their favorite having stepped down) as the next president.
The IGC has been dissolved, following these proclamations. The CPA of course confirmed it'll be in charge of basically everything until June 30.
At the same time, a car-bomb killed at least 20 at the Baghdad HQ of one of the 2 main Kurdish parties - the PKU. I'm not sure I can see a direct link between his blast just outside the Green Zone and the new govt - it may be a sign or it's just a continuation of a bloody campaign that targets the main parties.
Whatever, I haven't time or knowledge to check which minister is from which party, and who was in the IGC, but people like Raed or Juan Cole will probably have a great time picking it up apart.

Cross-posting with Billmon (my apologies).

Straight from L Paul Bremer III (who were the previous 2 hopeless ancestors?) interviewed by the press this evening in Iraq.

These operations are going on in an excellent and comfortable manner for Iraq.

This is very far-fetched and probably miss the mark by a full league. Still, for months there had been rumors Bush would end up dumping Cheney, who's become a major albatross for W.
So, who would Bush pick as replacement VP? I just had a thought, which could well be put to rest soon if the 9/11 storm increases. Though we know Bush honors those who follow him and are over-obedient. Do you think there's any possibility of Bush picking Condi Rice for VP? This would be a Rovian PR decision, a desperate attempt to catch more black and women voters, which unsurprisingly favor Kerry according to all polls.
All my apologies if this option has been discussed before. I was just wondering if there's another motive for not exposing Rice to the 9/11 Commission: protecting her as much as possible for her future run as VP.

OK, I got you. He didn't really say that.
However he made that kind of statement about the Madrid bombings, which you'll find here

Millions in the Spanish streets - more than during the huge anti-war global protest, though the weather is quite horrible today in Spain. (2 mio+ in Madrid, more than 1 mio in Barcelona, literally millions in other cities).

Meanwhile, the investigation goes on.