Recent linkage

* Americans and other external observers have the luxury of debating whether Iraq is experiencing a civil war. Iraqis, on the other hand, have the privilege of living through one.

* Reporting for IPS, Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed relay that Baghdad's central morgue is receiving an average of 85 bodies a day, a finding that's in accord with Robert Fisk's contention that morgue tallies suggest the Lancet figure of "excess deaths" from the war is probably a conservative estimate.

* Robert Dreyfuss foresees another round of "shock and awe" in Iraq, as the London Times reports on speculation of a "second liberation" (ha) of Baghdad likely to be launched towards the end of the summer.

* The AP profiles the massive US colonial office embassy being built in Baghdad, which will be the "largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq's turbulent future." It will fit in nicely alongside those "enduring" bases being built elsewhere in Iraq.

* Grand-scale robbery continues without pause in Iraq.

* The Guardian reports that Britain took part in the "Karona" war game exercise, which was a transparent dry run for an attack on Iran. For elaboration on Karona and further US war planning, see William Arkin's Sunday Washington Post article.

* Neocons, in unison: Bomb Iran!

* "There is no point in putting the moral position against attacking Iran," laments Brian Coughley in an ever-so-cheery essay. "The Cheney-Bush administration has shown itself impervious to argument, and presenting a case against killing thousands of innocent people cuts no ice with blinkered zealots. The planned blitzkrieg of divine strikes will probably take place. It will alter the entire world and create hatred of America that will never be eradicated. And there is nothing we can do about it."

* A suicide bomber in Tel Aviv kills 9 and gets more than ample coverage, typically on the front pages of newspapers and non-stop regurgitation on 24-hour cable outlets. Meanwhile, Gaza, home to some 1.2+ million Palestinians, is being strangled to death. Where, might I ask, do you find substantial, comparable coverage of that? Nowhere, obviously. See also: "Who is a terrorist?"

* Fire Rumsfeld? Matthew Rothschild says we'd be better off indicting him. John Yoo, too.

* In Vanity Fair, Carl Bernstein, the half of the famous Watergate duo who didn't sell his soul to the devil, urges "a full investigation of the conduct of the presidency of George W. Bush, along the lines of the Senate Watergate Committee's investigation during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon."

* "Sixteen days before President Bush's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address in which he said that the US learned from British intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Africa - an explosive claim that helped pave the way to war - the State Department told the CIA that the intelligence the uranium claims were based upon were forgeries, according to a newly declassified State Department memo," reports Jason Leopold.

* In a related report, Murray Waas says that Cheney ordered Libby to leak the March 2002 NIE on 12 July 2003. While not earth-shattering, Waas contends that this revelation "adds to a growing body of information showing that at the time Plame was outed as a covert CIA officer the vice president was deeply involved in the White House effort to undermine her husband."

* According to the London Times, Britain's chief scientist, Sir David King, has recently warned that Earth will face a 3 degrees celsius rise in temperatures within the next century, a "process that will lead to a rise in sea levels and increase in desertification that will place 400 million people at the risk of hunger."

* Listen up, disillusioned Leftists. Progressive social change, via mass moblizations of people, is still possible. Look to Latin America/ns and French labor for inspiration.

* This is worth tucking away for those conversations when people contend that illegal immigrants are sucking the US dry. In actuality, they seem to have very little negative effect on the economy as a whole, and probably a marginal benefit when wider variables are factored in. See also: Looking beyond the Beltway...

* If you're a woman in the US, you might want to inquire into whether your state is thinking about seizing your womb.

* Glad I'm not alone. The "Purity Ball," which was featured on last week's NOW, gave me the willies. Creepy, creepy stuff.

* In another excerpt from his new book, Kevin Phillips fleshes out his understanding of American theocracy in The Nation.

* Matt Taibbi profiles Jack Ambramoff in Rolling Stone.

* "Universal" health care in Massachusetts -- what a great idea! Umm, no. Think again.

* We learned over the weekend that the National Archives was in cahoots with the CIA over its reclassification operation. Nice to know that an institution that's supposed to preserve history is helping the intelligence services whitewash it.

* This AP study, which found that states are fudging school test scores typically by excluding the results of certain minority blocs, seems to suggest that Bush's much vaunted No Child Left Behind program is a cruel hoax.