Today's News: Not Fit To Print

Take a deep breath before you read Juan Cole's blog today.

He starts with reports that US officials are "tinkering" with the new Iraqi Constitution, even after most of the major players have left town. Then he reports that Sunnis involved in drafting the Constitution were offered bribes of up to $5 million apiece (what exactly did Bush say on that phone call the other day?).

And that's on top of yesterday's surreal news:

The Iraqi parliament attempted to legislate sanctions against perpetually absent members of parliament on Monday. But they could not legislate on the issue because there were too many absentees.

Meanwhile, US forces have dropped at least six 500kg bombs on two houses in Western Iraq. One US media headline reads Air Strikes Kill Seven Insurgents. The subtext reports that "40 civilians died in one house and 16 in another." A Google News search shows that this is how the attack is being reported in most of the US media. International papers take a different perspective. One report (from a new Pakistani TV station: it's not clear from their Web site who is behind them) even describes the US killing "60 Al Quaeda fighters".

Back in Bush's USA, new figures show 37 million people were living in poverty in 2004, up 12.7% from the previous year. Trickle-down economics is the darnedest thing, isn't it?

UPDATE: It's the fourth straight year of increasing US poverty. The Bush administration has produced increasing poverty numbers every year since taking office. Quelle surprise!

UPDATE 2: US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad says "a final, final draft has not yet been, or the edits have not been, presented yet." So much for letting the Iraqis govern themselves! See, that's the thing with kids - if you don't let them have their freedom, they will never leave home. Know what I'm saying?