Everyone is making such a big deal about Iraqi as an "island of Democracy" in the Middle East. Conservatives are using it to justify a losing war. Liberals are using it to attack the president.

But how many people have actually read it? Well I have, and while it is not the doom and gloom some people are pushing Iraq most certainly will not be an "island of democracy."

The Constitution is full of nice American-like language and statutes:
-Iraqis are equal before the law
-Every individual has the right to life and security and freedom and cannot be deprived of these rights or have them restricted except in accordance to the law and based on a ruling by the appropriate judicial body
-Double Jeopardy
-Freedom to travel
-No exile
-Freedom of religion
-Freedom of thought
-No discrimination based on color, race, gender (but not sexual orienation)

Sounds pretty good right? So some laws define the limits of rights and freedoms just like in the US. Where does this law come from?

Well, after the preamble and a statement defining the government, the very first thing in the Iraqi Constitution is:

1st — Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:
(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.

So for the freedoms defined in relation to the law are really subject to the law, specifically Islamic law.

Now some of these right are just absolutes like:

The state is committed to protecting the individual from coercion in thought, religion or politics, and no one may be imprisoned on these bases.

Some of them are entirely conditional to, again, Islamic law:

Article (36): The state guarantees, as long as it does not violate public order and morality:

1st — the freedom of expressing opinion by all means.

2nd — the freedom of press, publishing, media and distribution.

3rd — freedom of assembly and peaceful protest will be organized by law.

Morality is left underdined in the Constitution. Persumedly it is left to Islamic law to define morality.

What happens when someone doesn't respect the constitution? What happens when someone stones their daughter to death for allowing herself to get raped because that's in accordance with Islamic law? Well, then the case can be appealled to a Supreme Federal Court, much like our Supreme Court. So who is allowed on this court?

The Supreme Federal Court will be made up of a number of judges and experts in Sharia (Islamic Law) and law

Of course! Who better to resolve the conflicts between Islamic law and statements like "Every individual has the right to life and security and freedom and cannot be deprived of these rights" then someone who is an Islamic iman?

Take a good hard look at this document. This is the fruit of $200 Billion and 2000 dead Americans. You tell me if it was worth it. You tell me if you will ever trust this administration again.

Text of the draft Iraqi Constitution

Harriet E. Miers withdrew her nomination for the Supreme Court this morning after her selection by President Bush led to criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
Skip to next paragraph
Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

During meetings on Capitol Hill since her nomination, Harriet E. Miers failed to gain the support of key senators.
Related Bush's Statement | Mier's Withdrawal Letter (pdf)

Go to Complete Coverage

In recent days, several prominent members of the Republican Party had begun to publicly question Ms. Miers's nomination, suggesting was not conservative enough on issues such as abortion. Others, including Democrats and Republicans, have questioned Ms. Miers's lack of judicial experience since her nomination was announced on Oct. 3

But who will be nominated in her place? Bush has lost a lot of political capital over the last 3 months.

She's out: Miers Withdrawls

Less than 48 hours after the release of TinyDisk, someone uploaded goatse.cx into TinyURL. HAHAHAHA! Wow! Technology for the masses!

Less than 48 hours after its release...

All of episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, as a 221K 129x78 animated gif. Damn!

Update: here is episode 4, A New Hope.

Starwars: The Empire Strikes Back in 221k!

The Hubbert peak theory, also known as peak oil, concerns the long-term rate of conventional oil (and other fossil fuel) extraction and depletion. It is named after American geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who created a model of known reserves, and proposed, in 1956, in a paper he presented [1] at a meeting of the American Petroleum Institute, that oil production in the continental United States would peak between 1965 and 1970; and that world production would peak in 2000.

U.S. oil production peaked in 1971 [2], and has been decreasing since then. Global production did not peak in 2000, but Hubbert's model did not account for the 1973 and 1979 OPEC oil shocks, which effectively reduced global demand for oil and delayed the peak.

Hubbert Peak Oil Theory

colorado wrote:
This sounds useful for creating add-on modules for open source CMS (Content Management System) web apps. Can TinyDISK or NanoURL be installed and used on a remotely hosted unix server and MySQL database, administered via FTP or through a web-baseed interface like cpanel?

Sure. NanoURL was written to test TinyDisk and to provide a framework for future services.

What most of the slashdot crowd doesn't seem to get is:

-This hack is about how things like PHP magic quotes cannot secure you if your web application design is bad.
-This hack is about how to write extensions to web applications, hopefully adding value to them (Chicagocrime.org)
-This hack could be applied to nearly any service on the Internet.
-This hack is crippled by default to *NOT* flood TinyURL.
-This hack is supposed to be fun. Come on, there's a picture of a dude hugging a Penguin in there now!

RE: TinyDisk - An anonymous shared file system on top of TinyURL.

TinyDisk is a program from saving and retrieving files from TinyURL and TinyURL-like services such as Nanourl. It overlays a write-once-read-many anonymous, persistent and globally shared filesystem. Once something is uploaded, only the database admin can delete it. Everyone can read it. No one can know who created it. Think of it as a magical CD-R that gets burned and placed on a network.

This is a file system I demoed at Phreaknic that runs on top of the link shortening service TinyURL. Its the perfect case study of how to write meaningful extensions on top of existing web applications, which was the topic of my presentation.

I've already uploaded some fun stuff into TinyURL, like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and even TinyDisk itself. Thats right, the program to read and write to TinyURL is stored inside TinyURL! It was also very cool to see other people starting to use it.

Go download it and have some fun!

TinyDisk - An anonymous shared file system on top of TinyURL.

There is more to this. When it is revealed that you were a NOC, foreign intelligence services begin combing back over your life, examining every relationship you had. Anyone you came into contact with becomes suspect. Sometimes, in some countries, becoming suspect can cost you your life. Revealing the identity of a NOC can be a matter of life and death -- frequently, of people no one has ever heard of or will ever hear of again.

In short, a NOC owes things to his country, and his country owes things to the NOC. We have no idea what Valerie Plame told her family or friends about her work. It may be that she herself broke the rules, revealing that she once worked as a NOC. We can't know that, because we don't know whether she received authorization from the CIA to say things after her own identity was blown by others. She might have been irresponsible, or she might have engaged in damage control. We just don't know.

What we do know is this. In the course of events, reporters contacted two senior officials in the White House -- Rove and Libby. Under the least-damaging scenario we have heard, the reporters already knew that Plame had worked as a NOC. Rove and Libby, at this point, were obligated to say, at the very least, that they could neither confirm nor deny the report. In fact, their duty would have been quite a bit more: Their job was to lie like crazy to mislead the reporters. Rove and Libby had top security clearances and were senior White House officials. It was their sworn duty, undertaken when they accepted their security clearance, to build a "bodyguard of lies" -- in Churchill's phrase -- around the truth concerning U.S. intelligence capabilities.

Why the Plame Affair is far more important than no talent ass clowns like Boortz would have you believe.

The Importance of the Plame Affair

What is the Modern Marvels Invent Now� Challenge?
The Modern Marvels Invent Now� Challenge is a contest that invites the everyday inventor to share his/her vision and ingenious design with the world. Twenty-five semi-finalists will have the opportunity to be recognized, have their invention exhibited and receive valuable information to help them in the pursuit of their invention concept. The most remarkable invention submitted will be named the 2006 "Modern Marvel of the Year." The Challenge celebrates mankind's ingenuity and provides a forum for the independent inventor to be recognized

Apparently Steve Wozniac is associated with this. I know lots of Memestreams with various inventions up their sleeves.

Modern Marvels Invent Now� Challenge

Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems

Tom will be talking about some enhancements he is working on for Wikipedia at Phreaknic. Looks like this issue is only growing.

Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems | The Register