New Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to Newsweek, has drafted a plan for US troop withdrawl, and is unveiling it today.

The plan includes:

• US troop withdrawal "under conditions that take into account the formation of Iraqi armed forces so as to guarantee Iraq's security"
  
• Amnesty for all insurgents who attacked U.S. and Iraqi military targets
  
• Release of all security detainees from U.S. and Iraqi prisons
  
• Compensation for victims of coalition military operations.

This was recently discussed on the front page.

Recently, on the internet RADSAFE mailing list and elsewhere, the issue of the increased congenital malformation rates from exposure to depleted uranium and the effect it may have had on military recruiting has arisen.

If you know anyone who has avoided military service because of the threat of increased incidents of birth defects later in life, please post a description of the situation.  Thank you.

Should the Republicans bow out to allow Congress to impeach and convict this year, or should they wait for February, 2007?

Do you have kids in school?

Do you not want them to be recruited to go around killing people and breathing uranyl oxide gas vapor fumes?  

Please visit LeaveMyChildAlone.org and prevent U.S. military recruiters from preying on your kids. You will need to opt out twice for each kid:  once for direct recruiting, and again for in-school recruiting.

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war
Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists

By Jennifer Loven
Associated Press
August 31, 2005

CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists....

Of course, we would not need to have any troops there if we could just install a strong-man dictator to prevent the oil money from falling into the religious extremists' hands. With a secular strong man we wouldn't have to worry about the massive loss of women's economic, reproductive, and personal rights which has occurred and is continuing with the new draft constitution.

Oh, wait.

An agreement was reached that Islam is the religion of state, and that no law shall be enacted that contradicts the agreed-upon essential verities of Islam. Likewise, the inviolability of the highest [Shiite] religious authorities in the land is safeguarded, without any allusion to a detailed description.... A Higher Council will be formed to review new legislation to ensure it does not contravene the essential verities of the Islamic religion.

-- London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat

Sorry about that, girls. Quoting what Digby said, below the fold....

I am going to break with the usual diary protocol and copy this page in its entirety below the fold. I have no idea what "The International Post" is supposed to be, and this Sibel Edmonds story -- and supporting stories and media linked from it -- are apparently the only things of any substance that www.theinternationalpost.com has ever hosted so far. Furthermore, I can not figure out who the author, "Lynn Grant," is associated with; that might be a pseudonym. The HTML markup is messed up in that it looks like a hasty MS word doc conversion. Some of the link names pointing back to news items on the site seem to be named in Turkish. I have no idea what that might imply. So, on the chance that the site might be taken down on enforcement of Edmonds' gag order, I'm copying it in its entirety, and only cleaning some HTML and punctuation.

Please read, and then take the poll.

This EPA petition, in full below the fold, may be the most important EPA petition of the decade. It is based on the report entitled "Bad to the Bone: Analysis of the Federal Maximum Contaminant Levels for Plutonium-239 and Other Alpha-Emitting Transuranic Radionuclides in Drinking Water," by Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

Please TAKE ACTION by signing on to the letter.

Do you have kids in school?

Do you not want them to be recruited to go around killing people and breathing uranyl oxide gas vapor fumes?  

Click here for LeaveMyChildAlone.org and prevent U.S. military recruiters from preying on your kids.  You need to opt out twice for each kid:  once for direct recruiting, and again for in-school recruiting.

Please read below for the stories of Iraqi Police Major Crimes Unit Chief Brig. Gen. Majeed Farraji, Professor and international liason Salah Jmor, and Knight-Ridder's special Iraqi correspondent Yasser Salihee.  All are casualties of indiscriminate U.S. killing in Iraq.

Is it any wonder that Iraq is doing everything it can to cozy up to Iran?

Who Pays? is a comprehensive analysis of state and local tax burdens in all fifty states. The study, released on January 7, 2003, shows that on average, state and local tax systems require the poorest taxpayers to pay the highest effective tax rates.

Brought to you by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, via Citizens for Tax Justice.

Please take the poll.

(excerpts continued)

Modafinil is a prescription drug used to treat narcolepsy, cocaine and amphetamine addiction, and for other purposes, which is sold under the trade names Provigil in the U.S. and Alertec in Canada. In ordinary healthy adult humans, modafinil causes a sharp reduction in sleepiness and the need for sleep, without affecting the ability to sleep. It has rare and mild side-effects, and apparently no long-term drawbacks associated with sleep loss; certainly none of the blood infections which eventually kill sleep-deprived mammals. According to FDA data, modafinil has one of the largest "off-label" prescription rates of all prescription drugs, with physicians prescribing it for "relief of fatigue" which is often equivalent to "not enough sleep."

Since many Kossacks are likely to have had such an off-label prescription, if you have, what have your experiences been with this drug? Most importantly, were you able to stop taking it with no withdrawal symptoms or unexpected inconveniences? Please take the poll.

Read on for the full text.

I saw this AP news article in an open thread, and thought it best to diary it. Note that the Republican congress killed three Labor Department programs, two dozen Health and Human Services programs, and two dozen Education programs, but only managed to save $1 billion.

Immediate response by Nancy Pelosi here.

Please recommend: Don't let Rove-induced mouth frothing keep this Friday evening news off the radar, please.

Also, please take the poll....

Read the Toronto Star article, too.

I was unsatisfied with how the original poll in this diary went, so I set up a new ranked-choice poll at www.demochoice.org.

Please take the poll: click here to vote for your favorite Democratic National Committee Voting Rights Institute recommendations. I think you will find that this is a much better way to select than the "pick just one" style available here.

The recommendations are repeated for your reference below the fold.