If you use flickr, and routinely tag your photos, you might want to check out their new geotagging feature. In short, it allows you to use an interface like that of Google Earth to display where each of your photos was taken – literally right down to a street address. It’s pretty amazing.

Casey attacks things - like vacuum cleaners, brooms, dust-busters, and hoses. He also watches television.

During and shortly after the Presidential referendum in Venezuela I made a series of entries about the National Endowment For Democracy and USAID, specifically the Office of Transition Initiatives, funneling money to anti-Chavez groups. It has long been asserted that USAID has been used as a front for CIA social penetration operations, and such charges were directed towards USAID with regards to the referendum and other anti-Chavez activities. Interestingly, yesterday’s edition of the Guardian included a story entitled US Accused of Bid to Oust Chávez with Secret Funds, which delves into USAID’s involvement in bankrolling anti-Chavez elements. If you’re at all interested in wading into the seedy world of how apparatuses such as this are used to supplement covert initiatives, not to mention monetarily influence Non Government Organizations, it’s a good example to start with.

Also of interest is a story in today’s Washington Post about a new $20 million dollar contract being offered by the US military to help project more positive coverage about events in Iraq. When the truth just won’t cut it, it’s always best to buy a little just in case. And how many Katrina victims are still living in portables a year later? Well, at least they’ll be receiving a more positive spin on the war.

Speaking of spin, President Bush walked out onto the Iraq – 9/11 bridge today in Utah for another look around. From the BBC…

“He said those who brought down the World Trade Center in New York five years ago were united with car bombers in Baghdad, Hezbollah militants who shot rockets into Israel, and terrorists who had recently attempted to bring down flights between Britain and the US.�

If you’re at all wondering just how stupid most people are, look no further than the fact that there are quite a few that still don’t know that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. In fact, not one of the 9/11 hijackers was an Iraqi national. The fact that Osama Bin Laden and the majority of the hijackers that day were Saudis should not alarm you. Saudi Arabia is a grand place, and you’d best remember that.

Lastly, an acquaintance of mine was recently forced to remove his t-shirt at a US airport because it was deemed offensive. The shirt simply read, in both English and Arabic, ‘we will not be silent’.

Land of the free indeed.

Nick Drake was born in Rangoon in 1948. He died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of antidepressants. He suffered from depression, acute shyness, and insomnia, and made three of the most remarkable records in modern history. At the time no one much cared about them, and sales reflected it, but since then he has come to be regarded as one of the most influential acoustic artists of all time. He is buried in the village of Tanworth-in-Arden in the county of Warwickshire in England.

I commented two entries back that some 50 people had been killed in Iraq yesterday. Between that post and the end of the day that figure jumped to 100, with another 100 wounded. In the last 48 hours 10 American soldiers have also been killed and two dozen tortured bodies have been discovered dumped in the Maalif and Turath neighborhoods of Baghdad.

Brendan O’Neil’s recent piece, Today’s ‘Islamic Fascists’ Were Yesterday’s Friends, is today’s required reading, along with supplementary insights from Juan Cole.

Were you aware that the United States has now been militarily involved in Iraq longer than it was involved in the Second World War? And while the President refuses to seriously address the reality that his administration’s foreign policy initiatives have resulted in an ever widening catastrophe, he is certain of one thing…

“As of early 2005, according to a Harris poll, 47% of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein actually helped plan the attack and supported the hijackers. And in February, 2006, according to a unique Zogby poll of American troops serving in Iraq, “85% said the U.S. mission is mainly ‘to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks’; 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was ‘to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.’”

69 people were killed in Iraq yesterday. Today’s casualty total stands at near 50, and the day’s not done. If the true impact of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation still hasn’t resonated with you, put it this way - imagine 9/11 every two months.

My pick for today’s top read is Paul McGeogh’s piece for The Age entitled Bush ‘palace’ shielded from Iraqi storm. An excerpt…

“The plans are a state secret, so just where the Starbucks and Krispy Kreme stores will be is a mystery. But as the concrete hulks of a huge 21-building complex rise from the ashes of Saddam’s Baghdad, Washington is sending a clear message to Iraqis: “We’re here to stay.”

It’s being built in the Middle East, but George W’s palace, as the locals have dubbed the new US embassy, is designed as a suburb of Washington.

An army of more than 3500 diplomatic and support staff will have their own sports centre, beauty parlour and swimming pool. Each of the six residential blocks will contain more than 600 apartments.

The prime 25-hectare site was a steal — it was a gift from the Iraqi Government. And if the five-metre-thick perimeter walls don’t keep the locals at bay, then the built-in surface-to-air missile station should.

Guarded by a dozen gangly cranes, the site in the heart of the Green Zone is floodlit by night and is so removed from Iraqi reality that its entire construction force is foreign.

After almost four years, the Americans still can’t turn on the lights for the Iraqis, but that won’t be a problem for the embassy staffers. The same with the toilets — they will always flush on command. All services for the biggest embassy in the world will operate independently from the rattletrap utilities of the Iraqi capital.

Scheduled for completion next June, this is the only US reconstruction project in Iraq that is on track. Costing more than $US600 million ($A787 million), the fortress is bigger than the Vatican.�

My pick for best headline goes to Chris Moore for - Will the US Again Attack Iran – This Time Without Saddam?.

If you’re under the impression that this country isn’t at war, you had best think again. This month alone, eight Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan, and no matter the garbage that comes out of the mouths of Gordon O’Connor and Rick Hillier, members of our armed forces are being used up in a folly that is akin to a dog chasing its tail. How many more Canadians are going to have to come home in boxes before we start to demand answers about our role in Afghanistan? Making mistakes is easy enough. Admitting them is another matter altogether. But make no mistake - Mr. O’Conner and Mr. Hillier will never have to pay for them with their lives.

Kids from Raymore, Saskatchewan will do nicely.

» Speaking of Afghanistan, NATO pilots have been accused of killing Afghan civilians, including 9 children, during an attack near Musa Kala.

» I have always been an admirer of Professor Stephen Zunes’ editorials and essays, and his most recent piece - How Washington Goaded Israel Into War is no exception.

» Tom Barry’s piece from late July at Foreign Policy In Focus entitled Israel’s Man at the UN is worth a look.

» Amnesty International has released a scathing attack on Israeli’s deliberate assault on Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure.

» The US State Department is beginning an investigation into whether or not Israel used US made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon, which would have violated secret agreements between the US and Israel with regards to the weapon’s use. What will become of it? Nothing of consequence I should think.

» Benjamin Ferenccz, the chief prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, has commented that both Saddam Hussein and President Bush should be tried for war crimes. Ferenccz rightly points out that Nuremburg established wars of aggression as the most serious of international crimes, and that the UN Charter contains provisions that restrict the use of aggression without the expressed consent of the Security Council.

» The Boston Globe’s Robert Kutter penned a piece for yesterday’s edition entitled - The Cheney Presidency. It’s an interesting read.

It started in Gaza, something that has been entirely overshadowed by events in southern Lebanon. But to reassure you that Israeli operations in Gaza continue, the IDF today conducted two operations, one near Khan Younis and the other near the Karni crossing.

Also of interest is a piece on the Working For Change website by Geov Parrish entitled ‘Was British Terror Plot A Load Of Crap?’ In the piece, Geov points to an article published by The Register which asks if the plot was even feasible. It’s a well defended piece and worth a look.

Speaking of liquids and planes - as I write this my friend Meghan is enroute to Vancouver from New York. Before catching her flight she phoned to tell me that because a bottle of Coke that she’d purchased at a Deli inside JFK had a lid on it, she was stopped and questioned by several people who asked her to remove the screw-on cap. In the end, they actually took the cap from here, which didn’t bode well being that while she was telling me about it she spilled coke all over herself.

If you read one thing this week, let it be Michael Schwartz’s 7 Facts You Might Not Know about the Iraq War. Were I king for a day, everyone in the United States would be forced to read it (how terribly totalitarian of me). Schwartz’s primary points include:

1. The Iraqi Government Is Little More Than a Group of “Talking Heads”

2. There Is No Iraqi Army

3. The Recent Decline in American Casualties Is Not a Result of Less Fighting (and Anyway, It’s Probably Ending)

4. Most Iraqi Cities Have Active and Often Viable Local Governments

5. Outside Baghdad, Violence Arrives with the Occupation Army

6. There Is a Growing Resistance Movement in the Shia Areas of Iraq

7. There Are Three Distinct Types of Terrorism in Iraq, All Directly or Indirectly Connected to the Occupation