What's really terrifying about Bush's bid for Congress to address the controversy around torture and detainment is that, if lawmakers take the bait, there will cease to be a torture scandal and torture will be normalized. We are approaching a tipping point in the trajectory towards real fascism. From The Guardian, Sept. 15:

On a visit to his native Germany, Pope Benedict XVI weighed in Sept. 12 before an audience at Regensburg University, where he once taught, on the contentious issue of rapport between Islam and the West. Calling for a "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today," he began his speech by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, in a conversation with a "learned Persian" on Christianity and Islam — "and the truth of both." But the words he quoted from the emperor were: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." He went on to say that violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus "contrary to God’s nature."

From the Iraq Freedom Congress:

The assassination of Tariq Mahdi is part of a series of crimes committed by the sectarian militias

On August 18, 2006, the sectarian militias in Mahmoodya city (25 Km south of Baghdad) assassinated the secretary of the trade union of health services employees and IFC member Tariq Mahdi.

Over a six-day period ending Aug. 29, ICE agents arrested 109 immigrants as part of "Operation Return to Sender," a national ICE program targeting immigrants with criminal records, final orders of deportation or other immigration violations. Most of those arrested were from Mexico; others were from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, the Philippines, Colombia, Belgium, Iran, Cuba, and Korea. By Aug. 29, more than 35 of the immigrants had already been removed from the US. The rest were in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge. Of the 109 people arrested, 59 had prior criminal records. (ICE press release, Aug. 2; AP, Aug. 2)

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 14:

Most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human-induced global warming, says a study that one researcher says "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms like Katrina.

From Newsday, Sept. 12:

Chilling testimony told in limo crash trial

Little Kate Flynn's body was not difficult to identify after she died in the wreckage of a head-on crash on the Meadowbrook Parkway, a Nassau medical examiner testified this morning: Her mother was still carrying her daughter's head at the hospital.

If, as we recently speculated, the White House was hoping it could groom Islamists in Syria as proxies to destabilize the regime, this ought to provide a little cold water in the face. In fact, much to the consternation of the neocons, we could see Washington mending fences with Damascus, viewing the Assad dictatorship as the most expedient proxy to put down the Islamists. Official embrace of the "terrorist" lingo indicates Assad may want such as arrangement, lest he be on the receiving end of the Pentagon's smart bombs. From Canada's CTV, Sept. 12:

Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi and founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence, spent Sept. 11 with Camp Democracy, a small tent city established by anti-war activists on the National Mall in front of the US Capitol. Gandhi joined peace campers in a march that set out from the Washington Hebrew Congregation and stopped at the National Cathedral and the Islamic Center before culminating at the city's Gandhi memorial.