Are domestic Islamophobes starting to emulate the tactics of their counterparts in India? Note that this comes on the heels of the atrocious mosque desecration in Maine. From AP, Sept. 23:

Shots were fired at a mosque in Melbourne, Florida as worshippers celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but no injuries or arrests were reported, authorities said Saturday.

Tell us again how the anti-Semitic upsurge is all in our imagination. We keep forgetting. From KNBC, Los Angeles, Sept. 22:

ENCINO, Calif. -- Two flags depicting Nazi swastikas were draped over a freeway overpass in Encino on Friday, on the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days.

From the Mexican news agency APRO, Sept. 20 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

JALAPA - Protesting the failure of authorities to indemnify hundreds of families left homeless by a flood this past June, and to complete public works in the region, hundreds of indigenous people of the Sierra Soteapan closed the valves of the Yuribia Dam that supplies water to an important southern zone of Veracruz.

This report contains the usual condescension of mainstream (English-language) media accounts on the Zapatista movement. For instance, the Zapatista-led protests around the Atenco crisis earlier this year were quite significant, and dominated the news in Mexico before they were overshadowed by the even bigger protests sparked by the electoral dispute. This account indicates the potential for a mending of fences between the Zapatistas and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which seems poised to establish a parallel government. From AP, Sept. 21 via Chiapas95:

As if things weren't "interesting" enough in Somalia already, it looks like they are about to get much more so. The Taliban-style militia which has taken power in the capital, Mogadishu, seems to be waging a low-level war against the "official" but largely powerless government based in Baidoa—and pledges to resist troops from the East African multinational force known as IGAD, who are about to enter the country to back up the Baidoa government. Interestingly, IGAD's two leaders are Uganda, which is firmly in the US camp, and Sudan, which is widely perceived as an anti-Western "rogue state." This could indicate that Washington is succeeding (or at least believes its is succeeding) in domesticating the Khartoum regime as a proxy against its regional enemies. This would explain the recent peace deal between Uganda and the Lords Resistance Army, a brutal Christian fundamentalist guerilla group which the Islamic fundamentalists in Khartoum have backed to make trouble for Kampala. (New Vision, Kampala, Sept. 20) It would also explain the endless official foot-dragging, Bush's bluster notwithstanding, over Darfur. From AP, Sept. 19:

How many times a day do we have to say "A plague on both your houses"? First Saddam vows to "crush the heads" of Kurds testifying about his genocidal 1988 "Anfal" campaign. Then the judge in the case, Adullah al-Almiri, responds by re-assuring him that he was "not a dictator," which makes about as much sense as saying he didn't have a moustache. Not to be outdone in cynicism, Prime Minister al-Maliki promptly responds by having Justice al-Almiri summarily removed in dictatorial manner—thereby further compromising the case against the ex-dictator. And one of the charges against Saddam concerns lack of judicial independence under his regime! It seems Iraq's new bosses are starting to emulate their own much-demonized ousted tyrant.

A textbook case in how Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is viewed differently by the Imperium and the global south. First this, from the Voice of America, Sept. 20, on day two of the annual UN General Assembly debate:

Chavez brought his anti-U.S. campaign to the world body Wednesday. He called on like-minded world leaders to stand up to what he called "American imperialism," which he said is a "threat to the survival of the human race".

We sure hope this is Jewish paranoia! From the Jerusalem Post, Sept. 19 (emphasis added):

Venezuelan Jews fear Chavez-Iran ties

On the day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived for a 30-hour visit, it seemed appropriate that Venezuela's Jewish community should organize a conference on the Middle East conflict and its local repercussions.