My wife and I are in Colorado this week spending time together before I leave her for a year. We went white water rafting on the Arkansas River yesterday. We’re the two in the front of the raft.

This story is noteworthy.

And for the record, in my personal, non-official opinion, the U.S. military should be as forthcoming as possible about detainees and the reasons they have been detained.

Having said that, I find it dubious that the story mentions that two Reuters journalists killed by the U.S. military, but fails to mention that the U.S. military does not intentionally target journalists for death. The insurgency does. Isn’t that a significant difference? You might want to ask Eason Jordan. I’ve mentioned him in the past.

I would invite you to read the accounts of journalists dying in Iraq for the year 2004. What is clear from reading these accounts is that in a war, many accidents happen, and many innocent people die unjustly. What is also clear, is that the insurgents have a policy of murdering journalists with whom they are displeased. The coalition forces, on the other hand, have a policy of investigating every journalist death caused by the coalition in an effort to minimize such incidents. Do you understand the difference?

People kill people. We’ve been doing it since the beginning. But sometimes, the way we do it horrifies me.

They were burning him as if playing a normal street game. A few kept him pinned down to the ground while others poured petrol on him. After kicking him to the content of their hearts they torched him. With a burning body, he ran here and there. Someone brought a burning tire and with the help of a long rod and put it around his neck, receiving a great round of applause. They clapped and they chatted. There was no sound coming from him. He just ran like a giant flame, aimlessly flailing his arms in order to capture something in the air. They playfully avoided him, giggling, joking. Then he fell on the ground, giving up the fight against the unknown demons.”

Read the full entry, and then consider your own humanity. Consider how you want to die, if you have the choice. I have.

The America haters out there will want to tell me how much of American history is filled with similar scenes. I already know. I’m cognizant of national and world history. I also know what is in my heart. I could never set someone on fire and laugh at them while they died. I couldn’t stand by and watch while others committed such an act. I would try to kill them all. That is my nature.

I’ve complained several times in this blog about various companies that I do business with and their insulting automated systems that dehumanize me.

But this story about a man who is receiving offers for credit has to take the cake.

The letters begin, “Dear Palestinian Bomber. . .”

Habbas was even more shocked when, on several occasions, he said he called an 800-number for JP Morgan Chase and spoke to operators in an effort to complain. Each time, he says the operators called up his information on a computer but apparently didn’t catch on. According to Habbas, “The operators always said, ‘Yes, Mr. Palestinian Bomber, how can we help you?’”

If I hadn’t received similar treatment from the low IQ people that usually staff these phone centers, I would think this story was a plant. But it’s very believable. When I’m totally fed up with the appalling lack of customer service in today’s corporate world, I often play games with these people. I’ll start off my call speaking in a bad English accent. In the middle of the call, I’ll switch to a terrible Scottish accent. I like to finish off with a mediocre Indian accent. No one ever says a thing or questions why I come from three different parts of the world.

I recently complained that XM Radio has been randomly turning off my satellite radio service for the last 2 years and that the process of getting it turned back on is about as soothing as getting a lava enema. Yesterday, Cingular (a Bellsouth company) double billed me AGAIN for cellular phone service.

It almost makes me want to give up and become a Palestinian Bomber. But that would mean I’d have to pay dues to CAIR and I don’t want to support terrorist organizations.

Editor’s Note: Stuff that’s interesting or of import, in my opinion, is bolded. My comments are in italics.

Chapter One

Article One

The Republic of Iraq is an independent state. See, it’s not a damn Democracy.

Article Two

The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal. The democratic and federal parts are not to my liking.

1. Islam is a main source for legislation.

– a. No law may contradict Islamic standards. Not good.

– b. No law may contradict democratic standards. Not good.

– c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution.

2. This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices. Doesn’t sound very free to me. What about athiests?

3. Iraq is part of the Islamic world, and the Arabs are part of the Arab nation. Not everyone in Iraq falls into this. It sure isn’t very inclusive.

4.

a. Arabic and Kurdish are the two official languages, and Iraqis have the right to teach their sons their mother language like the Turkomen and Assyrian in the government educational institutes.

b. The language used orally in official institutions such as the Parliament and the Cabinet as well as official conventions should be one of the two languages.

c. Recognizing the official documents with the two languages.

d. Opening the schools with two languages.

Article Three

Federal institutions in Kurdistan should use the two languages.

Article Four

The Turkomen and Assyrian languages are the official languages in the Turkomen and Assyrian areas, and each territory or province has the right to use its own official language if residents have approved in a general referendum vote.

Article Five

Power is transferred peacefully through democratic ways.

Article Seven

1. Any organization that follow a racist, terrorist, extremist, sectarian-cleaning ideology or circulates or justifies such beliefs is banned, especially Saddam’s Baath Party in Iraq and its symbols under any name. And this should not be part of the political pluralism in Iraq. Bans don’t work. Just ask the American drug czar. He’ll lie, but the truth is, he’s losing. That’s despite 40 years of help from his predecessors. Bans DO NOT WORK. And they are idiotic, to boot.

2. The government is committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms, and works to protect Iraqi soil from being a center or passage for terrorist activities.

CHAPTER TWO

Article 35

– a. Human freedom and dignity are guaranteed. Good. That means that Iraq will never have a TSA.

– b. No person can be detained or interrogated without a judicial order. We used to practice something like this in the United States.

– c. All kinds of physical and psychological torture and inhumane treatment are prohibited, and any confession is considered void if it was taken by force, threats and torture. The person who was harmed has the right to ask for compensation for the financial and moral damage he/she suffered.

Article 36

The State guarantees:

1. Freedom of expression by all means. Does this include government funding of projects wherein the “artist” takes pictures of someone with a bullwhip in his or her anus?

2. Freedom of the press, printing, advertising and publishing.

Article 37

Freedom to establish political groups and organizations.

Article 39

Iraqis are free to abide in their personal lives according to their religion, sects, beliefs or choice. This should be organized by law. What? I have no idea what this means.

CHAPTER THREE

Article 66

A presidential candidate should:

1. Be Iraqi by birth and the offspring of two Iraqi parents. This is probably to keep Eygptians like Yasser Arafat from taking over.

2. Be no less than 40 years old.

3. Have a good reputation and political experience, and be known as honest and faithful to the nation. I have no idea why this is necessary, as it’s completely subjective.

Article 75

The prime minister should have all the qualifications as the presidential candidate and should have a university degree or its equivalent and should not be less than 35 years old.

Article 104

A general commission should be set up to observe and specify the central (government) revenues, and the commission should be made up of experts from the central government, regions, provinces and representatives.

CHAPTER 4:

Article 107

Federal authorities should preserve Iraq’s unity, security, independence and sovereignty and its democratic federal system. This will, of course, require that Iraqis create a plethora of agencies with the inevitable three letter acronyms for names.

Article 109

Oil and gas are the property of all the Iraqi people in regions and provinces.

Article 110

The central government administers oil and gas extracted from current wells, along with governments of the producing regions and provinces, on the condition that revenues are distributed in a way that suits population distribution around the country. This means an automatic 30% or more reduction in efficiency since government and not private enterprise is the delivery vehicle.

CHAPTER FIVE

Article 114

1. A region consists of one or more provinces, and two or more regions have the right to create a single region.

2. A province or more has the right to set a region according to a referendum called for in one of two ways:

– a. A demand by one-third of all members of each of the provincial councils that aims to set up a region.

– b. A demand by one-tenth of voters of the provinces that aim to set up a region.

Article 117

A region’s legislative authority is made up of one council, named the National Assembly of the region.

Article 118

The National Council of the region drafts the region’s constitution and issues laws, which must not contradict this constitution and Iraq’s central laws. This is a reassertment of central authority, which I am very dubious about.

Article 120

The executive authority of the region is made up of the president of the region and the region’s government.

Article 128

The region’s revenues are made up from the specified allotment from the national budget and from the local revenues of the region.

Article 129

The regional government does what is needed to administer the region, especially setting up internal security forces, such as police, security and region guards.

Article 135

This constitution guarantees the administrative, political, cultural and educational rights of different ethnic groups such as Turkomen, Chaldean, Assyrians and other groups.

CHAPTER SIX

Article 144

The Iraq Supreme Criminal Court continues its work as a legislative, independent commission to look into the crimes of the former dictatorial regime and its symbols, and the Council of Deputies has the right to annul it after it ends its duties.

Article 145

a. The Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification continues its work as an independent commission, in coordination with the judicial authority and executive institutions and according to laws that organize its work.

b. Parliament has the right to dissolve this commission after it ends its work, with a two-thirds majority.

Article 151

No less than 25 percent of Council of Deputies seats go to women. I’m not sure where they got this number, but I am glad women will have a voice.

Article 153

This law is considered in force after people vote on it in a general referendum and when it is published in the official Gazette and the Council of Deputies is elected according to it.

It will be interesting to arrive in Iraq around the time of the referendum.