Links and Minifeatures 11 06 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance



Carnival of Investing



RINO Sightings Recommended: Danegerus (trends in retroactive abortion)



Carnival of The Capitalists Recommended: Sox First (how accounting firms are trying to win protection from the government, after first winning the Sarbanes Oxley windfall)

**********



Saddam, Co-Defendants Sentenced to Hang



Or maybe not:

Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.



Three defendants were given up to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, were party officials in Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests.



A local Baath Party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

This is dealing with the past. Much more imnportant is how the Iraqis handle their future, and they are having difficulties with that.



Note that AP couldn't resist this snark:

Lost in the drama of Sunday's death sentence was any mention of the failed search for the alleged weapons of mass destruction that President Bush said led the United States to invade and occupy Iraq in March 2003.

That's because it's not relevant to the case at hand, which had to do with a massacre in the Kurdish north, and the Iraqi ABC programs were not relevant.

The United States has denied direct involvement in the trial, but some legal observers believe it was tainted by association with the American presence. Miranda Sissons, head of the Iraq program at the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York, said: "There will always be some doubt as to how much influence it exerted on the trial."

If President Bush had wanted to, he could have had Saddam Hussein tried anywhere. It was, after all, our soldiers that captured him and that hold the balance of power in Iraq. And the independence of the Iraqi government has been well established (you don't think we took down the checkpoints searching for our kidnapped soldier because we wanted to, do you?)



**********



This may be what kills Airbus: Airbus plans to cut 80 percent of subcontractors



Airbus is dependent upon political gravy for its subsidies. If they are no longer subsidizing 2500 subcontractors, that's a lot of political support they are tossing.



**********



Remember to vote tomorrow (if you haven't already)!