Links and Minifeatures 07 26 Wednesday

Carnival of The Vanities

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Officially now a "buyer's market". This is at least twelve months behind the power curve here. Inventory (Supply) is climbing. Demand is falling. And for the kewpie doll, prices will...?



Related: Housing market slowdown rippling across the economy



I think once enough sellers get it through their heads that the bull market of two years ago is gone, and start asking reasonable prices by today's standards, the housing market will start flowing again. There is tremendous desire, at least here locally; what there isn't is a lot of places to live at prices people can afford with sustainable loans.



Blame the artificial scarcity caused by opposition to development, opposition to high density housing, and the recent psychologically driven feeding frenzy.



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Attorneys: Accused troops won't testify against each other

In the notice, the Marine Corps said that it intended to call each man as a witness to testify against his squad mates in the alleged premeditated kidnapping and murder of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad on April 26 in Hamdania, Iraq.



Seigel's co-counsel, Joseph Casas, said the notification of the government's intention is part of its legal strategy. Once Jodka or the other men invoke the military equivalent of their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that opens the door for prosecutors to use hearsay statements each may have made.

Not to mention this little item generally called failing to abide by the rules of discovery (at least as I understand them). If it is discovered that the charges are bogus, the Corps is hosed, the way they've treated these Marines (and one sailor). But nobody can say they're not doing their best to convict them. Perhaps if they are acquitted, even the grievance mongers will agree they might be innocent of the charges?



Probably not. But we can hope.



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Six death squad members caught in Iraq

U.S. military commanders have struggled to quell the violence and have only recently intensified their efforts to disrupt groups of Sunni gunmen and Shiite militias responsible for much of the violence. Last week, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted 19 operations specifically targeting death squads. All but two were in Baghdad.

What happens when you try to make an omelet without breaking eggs? Same things happen when you try to make a civilized liberal democracy without taking on those driving it towards barbarism.



Bush, Maliki agree on more US troops for Baghdad, which is intelligent under the circumstances, so long as you don't allow it to turn into a real life version of Whack-A-Mole.



And some Congresscritters are evidently completely ignorant as to the nature of alliances. You don't expect our allies to agree with everything, just like we don't agree with everything our allies say or do.

A group of House of Representatives Democrats circulated a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert urging the Illinois Republican to get an apology from Maliki for denouncing Israel or cancel his address on Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress.



Ron Bonjean, Hastert's spokesman, said there was no intention to cancel Maliki's speech, and accused Democrats of "political gamesmanship during an election year."

The important thing is they are working with us where our aims intersect, and aren't working against us where they don't. That's an ally. Perhaps not a perfect ally, but an ally. Iraq would be a poorer place if we tried to turn it into an ersatz US. Could it be political gamesmanship? Absolutely. Could it also be sheer rank stupidity? Yep. What was that about attributing to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity?



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3 hospitals south of I-8 could fail, report says



All kinds of complaints about the state of the system, but nothing about the elephant in the room causing it. And they laud the report for it's "honesty"?



In related news, Lawmakers offer immigration alternative



Why will we not accept what we can get now? Even the unmodified Senate Bill is better than nothing, which is what we'll get if this stalemate continues. I want the house bill, but I'm willing to compromise and try for more later. All or nothing is a good way to get nothing - which keeps us on the course for disaster we're on.