What is now being dubbed Kyrgyzstan's "Tulip Revolution" is starting to look considerably less than velvet. The country remains divided, with ousted president Askar Akayev in hiding but refusing to step down, and some protests and even road blockades reported in his support. (AP, March 28) Looting and sporadic gunfire continue, with armed bands roaming the streets of Bishkek, the capital.

Well, it seems workers are battling to contain a large spill of crude-contaminated water—111,300 gallons—at ConocoPhillips' Kuparuk oil filed on Alaska's North Slope. State officials are concerned about impacts on the fragile tundra environment. How ironic that this comes days after the Senate voted to open the nearby ANWR to oil development. Fortunately, however, the compliant media have contained the crisis—by keeping it out of the headlines.

As Bush equivocates, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter states in a commentary for al-Jazeera that he was told by an anonymous "someone close to the Bush administration" that the U.S. military attack on Iran is slated for June 2005. An Israeli determination that Iran's uranium enrichment program could be functional by then was cited, Ritter says.

The German-based pro-Kurdish Flash-Bulletin website has posted a Feb. 16 letter from a group of Ezidi academics protesting that Ezidi children in eastern Turkey are being forced to study Islam in school by local village authorities—a practice they charge is part of the "Turkish state's assimilating policy against other ethnic and religious groups in general and Ezidis in particular." (Particularly cited is an unsourced press account from Oglakci village in the Viransehir region of Urfa province.) The writers of the letter accuse the Turkish government of bad faith in officially granting language and cultural rights to Kurds and other minorities in eastern Turkey, saying this policy is just a facade intended to facilitate entry into the European Union. The writers charge:

Right to Life, Unless You're Poor and Black
 http://www.diversityinc.com/public/13048.cfm

 This week, as Americans followed the legal battle over Terri Schiavo's
 feeding tube, a 6-month-old baby was "murdered" by Texas Children's
 Hospital officials, according to Arizona Republic columnist Mike Newcomb.
 Against the wishes of Wanda Hudson, the boy's mother, hospital officials
 took Sun Hudson off a ventilator that was helping him breathe. The mother,
 a 33-year-old poor black woman with no prenatal care, begged the hospital

From Digby's Blog:

Tom DeLay of Texas says:

"Mrs. Schiavo's life is not slipping away - it is being violently wrenched from her body in an act of medical terrorism... Mr. Schiavo's attorney's characterization of the premeditated starvation and dehydration of a helpless woman as 'her dying process' is as disturbing as it is unacceptable. What is happening to her is not compassion - it is homicide. She doesn't need to die, and as long as Terri Schiavo can breathe and her supporters can pray, we will not rest."

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush

The bigtime at last! It seems my commentary on the Lipstadt/Irving affair has been posted on the vile Irving's very own website! You've got to give him credit for airing the views of even those who hate his filthy crypto-Nazi guts, and for doing so with only the most subtle, non-verbal commentary.

I just love the way he put the words "notorious" and "supposed" in red, as if the use of such loaded adjectives reflects poorly on my objectivity. What an honor to be upbraided by this icon of disinterested scholarship!

Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 US soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, the NY Times reports March 26.

Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.