Another of the Bush Administration’s carefully-constructed images comes apart:

It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking. After the colonel — who was not named in the report — selected the statue as a “target of opportunity,” the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist, according to an account by a unit member. But Marines had draped an American flag over the statue’s face. “God bless them, but we were thinking … that this was just bad news,” the member of the psychological unit said. “We didn’t want to look like an occupation force, and some of the Iraqis were saying, ‘No, we want an Iraqi flag!’ Someone produced an Iraqi flag, and a sergeant in the psychological operations unit quickly replaced the American flag. Ultimately, a Marine recovery vehicle toppled the statue with a chain, but the effort appeared to be Iraqi-inspired because the psychological team had managed to pack the vehicle with cheering Iraqi children.

Inspired by Drudge’s Hillary Clinton rumor, Wonkette offers one of her own:

Official Washington has fallen in love with the idea, says a well-placed elementary school student. And while some claim to have spotted Kris Kringle leaving the Clarendon headquarters of BC04 early this morning, the campaign continues to deny that they will bump Cheney to pursue what one analyst calls a “very Northern strategy,” and another simply dismissed as “polarizing.” St. Nick’s connections to the birthday of Bush mentor Jesus Christ would seem to put Claus on good footing with evangelical groups, yet some close to the campaign worry that when it comes to politics, he wobbles like a bowl full of jelly…a White House insider says that deep down, “I always figured he was a lib — with his giving ways, his environmentally sound transportation, his hippy beard, and bright red clothing.” But, as another source said, “It still makes more sense than McCain.”

Matthew Yglesias credits Kerry with recognizing that the pro-embargo lobby doesn’t represent the views or interests of a substantial and increasing number of Cuban-Americans:

…after a brief feint toward trying to out-absurd Bush on Cuba policy, John Kerry has seen the light. Listening to pollsters who tell him that younger generations of Cuban-Americans (see, e.g., me) do not favor absurd, punitive, counterproductive, and stupid policy toward Cuba, Kerry has come out against these latest moves, thus making his Cuba policy marginally less absurd, punitive, counterproductive, and stupid…if Kerry’s strategy works, and he managed to become the first candidate since 1960 to win the state of Florida by advocating a less bad Cuba policy than his opponent, then the political power of the hideous CANF may be broken and the prospects for a rational policy will rise significantly.

Meanwhile, unfortunately, this Ha’aretz article suggests that Kerry has failed to recognize that the pro-Sharon lobby doesn’t represent the views or interests of American Jews:

The paper, entitled “John Kerry: Strengthening Israel’s Security and Bolstering the US-Israel Special Relationship,” was sent in mid-June to a group of people in the Jewish community as part of the Kerry campaign’s attempt to maintain contact with Jewish supporters in the United States and to clarify his positions on Israel. Kerry, who previously spoke against the separation fence at a gathering of the Arab-American Institute, is now seeking to correct that impression: “The security fence is a legitimate act of self-defense erected in response to the wave of terror attacks against Israeli citizens.”

The presumptive Democratic nominee also declares his opposition to transferring debate on the fence to international forums. The paper shows consistent support for Israel on all the issues at hand: Kerry backs Israel’s disengagement plan and also the two central points in President Bush’s letter to Prime Minister Sharon – the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian state, not within Israel, and recognition of Jewish population concentrations in the West Bank when establishing the permanent borders. “In light of demographic realities, a number of settlement blocs will likely become a part of Israel,” Kerry wrote his supporters. He further declared support for Israel’s actions against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror organizations and recalled that he was a signatory to the motion of support for Israel passed by the Senate during Operation Defensive Shield.

Looks like Democrats weren’t the only ones disturbed by the Bush Campaign’s plan to cull names from church memberships:

”I’m appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. ”The bottom line is, when a church does it, it’s nonpartisan and appropriate. When a campaign does it, it’s partisan and inappropriate,” he said. ”I suspect that this will rub a lot of pastors’ fur the wrong way.” The Bush campaign defended yesterday a memo in which it sought to mobilize church members in support of the president’s reelection bid through efforts such as providing church directories to the campaign, arranging for pastors to hold voter registration drives, and talking to various religious groups about the campaign.

One section of the document lists 22 ”coalition coordinator” duties and lays out a timeline for various activities targeting religious voters. By July 31, for example, the coordinator is to: Send your church directory to your state Bush-Cheney ’04 headquarters or give to a BC04 field representative. Identify another conservative church in your community that we can organize for Bush. Recruit five people in your church to help with the voter registration project. Talk to your pastor about holding a citizenship Sunday and voter registration drive.

I’ve never been among those who contend that it’s inherently wrong for churches or pastors to take or advance political stances, although I’ve frequently criticized the type the Southern Baptist Convention pushes. But asking pastors to turn over membership lists to campaign coordinators is a different animal entirely – and it’s an ugly one.

Another study challenges the effectiveness of workplace drug testing:

Workplace drug testing programs do not deter employees from using illicit substances, nor do they increase workers’ on-the-job performance, according to a study released this week in Britain by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the think-tank DrugScope. Authors of the report, entitled “Drug testing in the workplace: The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Drug Testing at Work,” determined: “The common assumption that drug and alcohol use has a major impact on productivity and performance at work is not conclusively supported by the evidence. … Nor has it been demonstrated that drug testing has a significant deterrent effect, or is the most appropriate way of identifying and engaging with staff whose drug use is affecting their work.”

Unless, that is, by “effectiveness” you mean humiliating your employees discouraging worker militancy, which, as Barbara Ehrenreich argues in Nickle and Dimed, has a great deal to do with the motivation behind these tests.

Thanks to whoever found this page searching for Michael Moore and had it translated into Spanish (“Poco Ramo Salvaje”). It was worth checking out for the Leonard Cohen lyric alone:

Pero soy obstinado pues estos bolsos de la basura que el tiempo no pueda decaerme soy chatarra pero todavía estoy soportando este pequeño ramo salvaje: La democracia está viniendo a los E.E.U.U

The meter’s not the same, but it’s still pretty cool.

The Rwandan Parliament seizes the mantle of opposing genocide to push to shut down opposition human rights groups:

The Rwandan government should reject a parliamentary request to dissolve one of the country’s leading human rights groups unfairly accused by a parliamentary commission of harboring genocidal ideas, Human Rights Watch said today. After three days of debate, the Rwandan parliament on Wednesday asked the government to dissolve the League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Ligue Rwandaise pour la promotion et la défense des droits de l’homme, or Liprodhor) and four other civil society organizations because they allegedly supported genocidal ideas. The action was recommended by a parliamentary commission that also called for the arrest of leaders of the organizations. “Dissolving Liprodhor would call into question the Rwandan government’s commitment to such basic human rights as freedom of expression and association,” said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser for the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. During the parliamentary debate, the commission made sweeping and unproven accusations against Liprodhor and the other organizations, including a rural association for improving agricultural output and an association of widows whose husbands were killed during the 1997-99 uprising in northern Rwanda.

The commission interpreted “genocidal ideas,” prohibited by law in Rwanda, so broadly as to include even dissent from government plans for consolidating land holdings. “Under such a broad interpretation, any opposition to the government can be labeled ‘a genocide ideology’ and its proponents can be severely punished,” Des Forges said. The parliamentary commission, established following the late 2003 killing of several survivors of the 1994 genocide, gathered information from local officials and others in about three-quarters of the country. It concluded that a “genocide ideology” was widespread, found in six of the Rwanda’s 12 provinces, at the national university, in a number of secondary schools and in many churches. One parliamentarian even alleged during debate that genocidal ideas had been found among survivors of the genocide, a statement that drew derision from other parliamentarians.

A ringing endorsement of equal marriage rights:

We recognize that lack of access to marriage deprives gay and lesbian working families of more than 1,000 rights and benefits afforded heterosexual families, such as spousal Social Security and pension benefits, hospital visitation rights, spousal health insurance, immigration rights, and many other federal, state, and local protections, as well as rights in the workplace. Civil union and domestic partnership laws, while well intentioned, create an unequal legal status for same-sex couples that extends only a few of the state and local-level protections and benefits afforded “spouses” in heterosexual marriage.

Says who? The Service Employees International Union, the largest union in the United States. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido – despite the best wishes of the Right.

Sudanese authorities evacuate a refugee camp in anticipation of Kofi Annan’s visit:

Gone were the more than 1,000 residents of the Meshtel settlement. Gone as well were their makeshift dwellings. Hours before Mr. Annan’s arrival, the local authorities had loaded the camp’s inhabitants aboard trucks and moved them. Aid workers who had visited the camp earlier said that before its sudden evacuation, Meshtel was a desperate place in which displaced people lived packed together in makeshift shelters on ground flooded from recent rains. “Where are the people?” Mr. Annan was overheard asking a Sudanese official who was accompanying his tour of Darfur, the region in western Sudan where the government has been accused of unleashing armed militias on the local population to quell a rebel uprising.