DANIEL DREZNER REMINDS US why Pat Robertson was one of the original models for the term “idiotarian.”

Robertson isn’t just idiotic, though: he’s also corrupt. But, then, that’s a trait he shares with a lot of others covered by that term.

UPDATE: Michael Graham is savaging Robertson. And don’t miss this Michael Barone column on Robertson’s sleazy Liberia connections, either. (“Pat Robertson’s tie to Charles Taylor is based on a financial connection. In 1999 Robertson’s Freedom Gold company signed a deal to mine an area in southeastern Liberia. The Liberian government, i.e. Taylor, has a 10 percent interest in Freedom Gold.”)

IS EVERYTHING THAT GEORGE GALLOWAY SAYS A LIE? OR IS IT JUST THE STUFF THAT YOU CAN CHECK?

The Guardian again gives George Galloway another platform to defend Saddam. Galloway rants on with stuff that would embarrass Robert Fisk . . .

Leave aside all the obviously delusional stuff. The average high in Baghdad in July, its hottest month, is 110; the average low in July is 78. So where did Galloway’s “100 degrees at midnight” stuff come from? This sort of thing is easily checkable.

It sure seems as if it’s one or the other, but no doubt a truthful phrase does cross his lips from time to time.

A MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER IN BAGHDAD WRITES:

While skepticism given America’s foreign-policy record in this part of the world may be warranted, on an interpersonal level I see the U.S. military treating Iraqis with respect over and over again. I see commanders asking me and other American Muslims for advice on how to deal with religious and cultural sensitivities and taking very seriously any real or perceived abuses by troops. I see Iraqis risk their safety and the safety of their families to inform on rogue elements. I see soldiers who’ve never left places like Kansas City understand and use the word inshallah. I’ve seen food distribution that was slow and methodical because U.S. soldiers there wanted to make sure that older mothers got what they needed first. Afterwards community leaders and elders who normally would have cursed these foreigners thank them for treating their people with dignity.

There is an Arab proverb that says a thousand days of tyranny is better than one day of anarchy. It’s time we kick that proverb to the curb.

I’ll bet that proverb was written by a tyrant.

MORE NEWS FROM IRAQ:

THE new 25-member Iraqi Governing Council savaged the Arab media today for romanticising deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and turning a blind eye to the atrocities he committed against his own people.

“I say this to the Arab media: stop advising the Iraqis to fight the Americans,” Nasseer al-Shadershi, the Sunni Muslim head of the Iraqi Democratic Current, told reporters to a roar of applause. . . .

He scolded the media for ignoring the crimes of Saddam, invoking the 1988 gassing of the Kurds and the brutal supression of the Shi’ite and Kurdish uprising at the conclusion of the 1991 Gulf War.

“Come see the mass graves,” he said, to a furious round of applause.

(Via On The Third Hand).

INTERESTING EDITORIAL from the Kampala, Uganda New Visions:

When world citizens – young and old – crave for things American, from Colas to dollars, some call it cultural imperialism, etc. But because the American magic pleases the body and soul, we swallow it with relish.

Moreover, for Africans calling Americans imperialists is rather ironic. History has it clearly that Americans having suffered the British colonial yoke, were with Africans in kicking out the crown.

Well, someone could be quick to add that it was Americans who enslaved Africans in the first place. Granted. But we should not also forget that it was mainly under American masters that African slaves at least survived and eventually took their place under the sun.

African slaves were equally taken in huge numbers to the Arab world, but where are they today? Wouldn’t black people in the Arab world be in millions? Where are the Arab Colin Powells, Condoleezza Rices, Rosa Whitakers, who would be walking the corridors of power? Is it true that male African slaves in the Arab world were castrated to deny them reproduction?

The survival of the African slaves to become part of modern America explains one key aspect in the strength of the United States. Sticking to its roots as a land of immigrants, the United States absorbs people from other parts of the world with ease as its citizens.

Indeed. (Via Tacitus).

DICTATOR SUCK-UP WATCH (FoxNews subsection): A search of the FoxNews.com website still shows no stories on the massive Hong Kong protests.

UPDATE: Reader Bob McNear emails: “Last night, Fox News was reporting the protests in Hong Kong on their station’s crawl.” Um, okay. But where is it on the website?

SPEED LIMITS KILL, according to this piece in The New York Times.

ON FRIDAY I POSTED THIS ITEM linking to a column by Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the Sixth Circuit, who discovered evidence of an Osama/Saddam connection while in Baghdad.

Here’s a followup on that item, from Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly Standard. Hayes’ piece suggests that U.S. authorities are being extremely cautious in drawing connections between Al Qaeda and Saddam. You can read more here on the subject of Saddam/Osama links — just keep scrolling. And here is a story on the subject from the Saturday New York Post.

Meanwhile, Judge Merritt says he’s been gagged by the U.S. government. What does all this mean? I’m really not sure. But I think this story deserves a lot more attention than it’s gotten.

UPDATE: Here’s an item listing numerous articles from 1999 indicating a connection between Saddam and Osama. It would be more impressive if it included links, but I assume the quotations are accurate.

IT’S A FISK-A-THON OVER AT LILEKS’ PLACE. Don’t miss it.

WHY AM I UP AND BLOGGING SO EARLY? Beats me. I was a bit tired from the drive, so I went to bed earlier than usual. But I don’t think that explains why I awoke at 5 a.m. fully-charged and unable to get back to sleep. Oh, well.

SPOONS is back and blogging again!

THE BEGINNINGS OF IRAQI SELF-GOVERNANCE:

In a deeply symbolic first public action, the governing council on Sunday set April 9 — the day Baghdad fell to U.S. forces — as a national holiday and banned celebrations on six dates important to Saddam and his Baath Party. And the act was announced, significantly, by a prominent Shiite cleric. Shiites, long oppressed by Saddam, now dominate the 25-member council.

“The establishment of this council represents the Iraqi national will after the collapse of the dictatorial regime,” said the cleric, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum from the holy southern city of Najaf.

The council will have real political muscle, with the power to name ministers and approve the 2004 budget. But final control of Iraq still rests with L. Paul Bremer — the U.S. administrator of Iraq and a major architect of the council.

I agree with Tacitus that this is a big deal, and deserves a lot more attention than it has gotten.

THE UNITED NATIONS: FRIEND OF DICTATORS — a seemingly ever-continuing series:

The UN has refused to arrest a Zimbabwean police officer accused of torture who is currently working for it in Kosovo as a member of an international training team.
The UN was informed in early June that the alleged torturer, Detective Inspector Henry Dowa, was working for it in Prizren, Kosovo, but it declined to take any action, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Zimbabwean police thought to have done a good job by the country’s government are often seconded to UN peacekeeping missions, where conditions are comparatively good and they are paid in dollars.

Mr Dowa has been named by several Zimbabwean torture victims as having directed and carried out beatings with fists, boots and pickaxe handles, and as having administered electric shocks to the point of convulsions, at Harare central police station throughout 2002 and in early 2003.

The charges have been backed up by medical examinations which confirm injuries consistent with torture.

Sheesh. But it’s not just the United Nations:

President Robert Mugabe’s regime pulled off an extraordinary diplomatic coup yesterday when it was given a senior position within the African Union, the grouping set up to promote good governance in Africa.

The move was seen as a direct snub to President George W Bush who called for a “return to democracy in Zimbabwe” during his African tour last week.

It also outraged Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change which claimed that it was a “betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe” and made a mockery of the AU’s founding commitment to good governance.

Like the UN, the AU is a dictators’ club that takes care of its own. As, really, is the “international community” for which moral standing is often claimed, but seldom demonstrated.