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.

The first real evidence of a U.S. hand in the recent murky revolution in Kyrgyzstan has emered in the form of a "secret report" purportedly written by U.S. Ambassador Stephen M. Young, which appears on the website of Kabar, the Kyrgyz National News Agency. Kabar appears to remain in the hands of loyalists to ousted President Akayev, and we make no claims as to the authenticity of the letter.

Reversing a policy instated by his own father, President Bush has authorized the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan—a move India has warned could destabilize the region. The US banned the sale of such potential nuclear delivery systems to Pakistan in 1990 due to concerns about its nuclear weapons program.

Bush has fingered Stephen L. Johnson as new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing Mike Leavitt, who has been nominated for Secretary of Health. As the EPA's assistant administrator for toxic substances, Johnson has taken some controversial positions. Writes Gene C. Gerard in a commentary for Intervention magazine: