Oops, he did it again. While it has gone largely unnoticed in US media coverage, press outlets on the subcontinent are noting (with trepidation or glee) alarmingly bellicose comments by Barack Obama at the Austin Democratic presidential debate Feb. 21 broaching military intervention in Pakistan—an idea being viewed with growing seriousness in elite circles. Here's a selection of quotes from the supposedly dovish candidate assembled (with trepidation) by Pakistan's Daily Times Feb. 23, and (with barely disguised glee) by the India's The Hindu Feb. 22:

Divided over whether to boycott the polls, Islamist parties were among the biggest losers in Pakistan's general elections. Islamists participated in the 2002 elections under the banner of the six-party Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and secured 66 seats in the National Assembly. The MMA also formed its own government in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and was a major coalition partner in the Baluchistan government. But this time, the alliance fractured. Jammat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party, and two other MMA member parties boycotted. Only the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) of former parliamentary opposition leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, a friend of President Pervez Musharraf, and two other minor partners participated. The JUI won only five National Assembly seats—down from 48—and also faced harsh reversals in the NWFP and Baluchistan.

Turkish troops destroyed five bridges on the Avashin or Blue River in an incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt PKK rebel fighters, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Feb. 22. "We don't expect that a large incursion is taking place, as it's a remote and inhospitable region," Zebari said, estimating that "hundreds, rather than thousands" of Turkish troops were involved in the operation. Earlier, Ankara announced a "limited operation" into Iraqi territory. (AFP, Feb. 23) The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, issued a statement warning that if Turkish forces target civilians or damage any civilian infrastructure they will face large-scale resistance. (VOA, Feb. 23)

Shops and stores in downtown Gaza City closed their doors Feb. 23 as part of a general strike to protest Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip. Shop owners carried banners reading "closed because of the siege" in Arabic and English. Jamal al-Khoudari, director of the newly-formed independent anti-siege committee, said Gaza dealers and merchants have lost about $150 million since their imported goods have been held up by Israel's blockade. Placing a monument for the victims of the siege in a public square in Gaza, al-Khoudari said "the siege [has] killed 99 people so far" with many more at risk. "Thousands of patients wait to have a number in the list of dead because they can't go outside for further treatment and can't have the needed medicine here." (Xinhua, Feb. 23)

Personally, we aren't too comforted by the fact that this thing was blown up in the sky instead of falling to earth—releasing all that toxic hydrazine into the atmosphere. But we are glad this Feb. 21 account from the UK Guardian closes with a quote from Michio Kaku, a principled voice for space demilitarization. Via the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space:

The New York Times reports in a front-page story Feb. 23 that the Justice Department has opened an internal ethics investigation into the notorious August 2002 Bybee Memo that gave the imprimatur of legality to the Administration's use of "waterboarding" and other forms of torture. Leave it to the far-left World Socialist Web Site (Feb. 21) to save from the Orwellian memory hole a new defense of torture's "legality" by Antonin Scalia:

Earth First! blockades power plant

From Everglades Earth First!, Feb. 19:

Early Monday morning hundreds of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL's West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida.

The anti-immigration blog VDare (who get creds for being bilingual) approvingly note from a persual of Monterrey's daily El Porvenir that the Monterrey suburb of San Nicolas is planning to build a security fence on its border with the neighboring municipality of Guadalupe—reportedly, to keep out thieves and gang activity.