Wednesday, January 31, 2007
2006 Afghanistan Death Toll Highest Since 2001 Fall of The Taliban
According to a report issued yesterday by the organization Human Rights Watch, over 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in 2006 by either theTaliban, or other anti-government forces, mainly in the southern region of Afghanistan. A total of 4,400 Afghans died in 2006, in
conflict-related violence, which is double the toll of 2005, and the highest number of casualties since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. A United Nations also estimates that another 15,000 families -- approximately 80,000 people -- have been displaced as a result of the conflict.
From the press release:
“Afghanistan hasn’t really met many of the benchmarks, particularly those addressing the well-being of the Afghan people,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia research director at Human Rights Watch. “Kabul and its international backers have made little progress in providing basic needs like security, food, electricity, water and health care.”
The organization calls upon the U.S., the European Union, and other donors to protect the human rights of Afghans via better economic, political, and military assistance as agreed upon at the Afghanistan Compact, the international conference held in London at the beginning of 2006.
Lack of security leaves tens of thousands of Afghans unable to attend school, seek health care, or even simply venture out to market. Many areas also fall prey to human rights abuses such as illegal land grabs, intimidation of journalists, and ethnic violence.
Afghan President Karzai did not implement the Compact's 5-year plan for peace until December of 2006, and one month later this was followed by various government officials who had been accused of war crimes discussing granting themselves immunity to the charges.
-D.
conflict-related violence, which is double the toll of 2005, and the highest number of casualties since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. A United Nations also estimates that another 15,000 families -- approximately 80,000 people -- have been displaced as a result of the conflict.
From the press release:
“Afghanistan hasn’t really met many of the benchmarks, particularly those addressing the well-being of the Afghan people,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia research director at Human Rights Watch. “Kabul and its international backers have made little progress in providing basic needs like security, food, electricity, water and health care.”
The organization calls upon the U.S., the European Union, and other donors to protect the human rights of Afghans via better economic, political, and military assistance as agreed upon at the Afghanistan Compact, the international conference held in London at the beginning of 2006.
Lack of security leaves tens of thousands of Afghans unable to attend school, seek health care, or even simply venture out to market. Many areas also fall prey to human rights abuses such as illegal land grabs, intimidation of journalists, and ethnic violence.
Afghan President Karzai did not implement the Compact's 5-year plan for peace until December of 2006, and one month later this was followed by various government officials who had been accused of war crimes discussing granting themselves immunity to the charges.
-D.
3084
The Toll.
U.S. Army Pfc. Shawn Falter is buried with full military honors in Homer, N.Y., Wednesday, Jan.31, 2007. Falter and three other soldiers were abducted and executed in an ambush attack in Iraq Jan. 20, 2007. The gunmen spoke English, wore U.S. military uniforms and carried American weapons in one the boldest and most sophisticated attacks in four years of warfare. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)
-D.
Malaysians in floral costumes wait for a performance during Floral Parade, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2007, in the administrative capital of Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur January 27, 2007. [REUTERS/Bazuki]
-D.
Homicidal Threat: A cry for help, warning of impending tragedy.
I just came upon this, and seems I missed it during my move regarding the rape/murder of 14-year old Abeer and her family:
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. Jan 9, 2007 (AP)— An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.
Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel a drug to regulate his mood and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."
On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.
It seems Private Green did exactly what he should have, sought mental help for his abnormal urges. The military drugged him up with a medication that should have in itself rendered him unable to perform his duties, and then turned him loose.
I have no sympathy for the sheep who followed Private Green to Abeer's home that night, but it seems the wrong 'ring-leader' is on trial.
-D.
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. Jan 9, 2007 (AP)— An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.
Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel a drug to regulate his mood and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."
On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.
It seems Private Green did exactly what he should have, sought mental help for his abnormal urges. The military drugged him up with a medication that should have in itself rendered him unable to perform his duties, and then turned him loose.
I have no sympathy for the sheep who followed Private Green to Abeer's home that night, but it seems the wrong 'ring-leader' is on trial.
-D.
Anastacia Fuller, 19, who is expecting her first child in April holds a photo of her husband U.S. Army Sgt. Alexander Fuller, 21, who died Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007, when the Humvee he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, the Department of Defense said Monday, Jan. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Vince DeWitt)
-D.
Wouldn't He?
WASHINGTON — The Air Force is preparing for an expanded role in Iraq that could include aggressive new tactics designed to deter Iranian assistance to Iraqi militants, senior Pentagon officials said.
The efforts could include more forceful patrols by Air Force and Navy fighter planes along the Iran-Iraq border to counter the smuggling of bomb supplies from Iran, a senior Pentagon official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military plans.
Such missions also could position the Air Force to strike suspected bomb suppliers inside Iraq to deter Iranian agents that U.S. officials say are assisting Iraqi militias, outside military experts said.
The heightened role of U.S. air power in the volatile region is the latest sign of tension between President Bush and Iran's leaders.
Bush warned two weeks ago that U.S. forces would take a harder line against Iranians in Iraq, vowing to "seek out and destroy" weapons supply networks that endanger U.S. troops.
He expanded the warning Monday, saying in a National Public Radio interview that Iranian threats to the Iraqi people would be considered unacceptable.
The tough stance has been backed by military moves. Bush this month ordered a second aircraft carrier group, led by the John C. Stennis, to the Persian Gulf, a measure described as a warning to Iran.
The stepped-up presence and visibility of U.S. warplanes is seen as likely to reinforce that message.
"Air power plays major roles, and one of those is as a deterrent, whether it be in border control, air sovereignty or something more kinetic," said the senior Pentagon official, using a term that refers to offensive military action.
I often hear people lately say that George Bush isn't 'that nuts' but, I've yet to see evidence to the contrary.
-D.
The efforts could include more forceful patrols by Air Force and Navy fighter planes along the Iran-Iraq border to counter the smuggling of bomb supplies from Iran, a senior Pentagon official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military plans.
Such missions also could position the Air Force to strike suspected bomb suppliers inside Iraq to deter Iranian agents that U.S. officials say are assisting Iraqi militias, outside military experts said.
The heightened role of U.S. air power in the volatile region is the latest sign of tension between President Bush and Iran's leaders.
Bush warned two weeks ago that U.S. forces would take a harder line against Iranians in Iraq, vowing to "seek out and destroy" weapons supply networks that endanger U.S. troops.
He expanded the warning Monday, saying in a National Public Radio interview that Iranian threats to the Iraqi people would be considered unacceptable.
The tough stance has been backed by military moves. Bush this month ordered a second aircraft carrier group, led by the John C. Stennis, to the Persian Gulf, a measure described as a warning to Iran.
The stepped-up presence and visibility of U.S. warplanes is seen as likely to reinforce that message.
"Air power plays major roles, and one of those is as a deterrent, whether it be in border control, air sovereignty or something more kinetic," said the senior Pentagon official, using a term that refers to offensive military action.
I often hear people lately say that George Bush isn't 'that nuts' but, I've yet to see evidence to the contrary.
-D.
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Millions of dollars in US rebuilding funds have been wasted in Iraq, US auditors say in a report which warns corruption in the country is rife.
...
One case involved a payment by the US State Department of $43.8m to a contractor, DynCorp International, for a residential camp for police trainers outside the Adnan Palace grounds in Baghdad. The camp has never been used.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered $4.2m of work there, never authorised by the State Department, that included 20 trailers for important visitors and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say this is probably some of that good stuff Laura Bush says we don't hear about in the media.
-D.
...
One case involved a payment by the US State Department of $43.8m to a contractor, DynCorp International, for a residential camp for police trainers outside the Adnan Palace grounds in Baghdad. The camp has never been used.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered $4.2m of work there, never authorised by the State Department, that included 20 trailers for important visitors and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say this is probably some of that good stuff Laura Bush says we don't hear about in the media.
-D.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Nothing short of total withdrawal.
January 30, 2007: Lourdes German embraces her 19-year-old son, Merlin, while dancing at a Brooke Army Medical Center holiday ball on December 8 in San Antonio, Texas. Ninety-seven percent of German's body was burned after an IED hit his convoy in Iraq.
(Photo: Ben Sklar / Getty Images)
Bring them home NOW.
-D.
~QOTD~
"War's unsettling … war's negative, and I understand that. And, thankfully, the economy is good, is strong right now during a very difficult period," he said.
-Man in the Bubble, 1-30-07
I wish he had been forced to attend just one of the video conference calls during the holidays that many in the Metro area attended in lieu of holiday parties, or so much as a plump piece of poultry for their holiday dinners. How would his mind have translated the news that these people -- white collar workers -- rather than receiving a yearly raise, again, were given the news that not only were their retirement health care benefits now gone, but were forced to listen to 30 minutes of why the big execs deserved the multi-million dollar bonuses that were requested to be released from bankruptcy courts?
I'd also mention the folks who were so desperate that they've resorted to robbing homeless shelters for basic necessities, but the fact is they are so far down the chain in the world of the man in the Bubble that they just don't count in his mind. And they know it, you know it, and I know it.
-D.
-Man in the Bubble, 1-30-07
I wish he had been forced to attend just one of the video conference calls during the holidays that many in the Metro area attended in lieu of holiday parties, or so much as a plump piece of poultry for their holiday dinners. How would his mind have translated the news that these people -- white collar workers -- rather than receiving a yearly raise, again, were given the news that not only were their retirement health care benefits now gone, but were forced to listen to 30 minutes of why the big execs deserved the multi-million dollar bonuses that were requested to be released from bankruptcy courts?
I'd also mention the folks who were so desperate that they've resorted to robbing homeless shelters for basic necessities, but the fact is they are so far down the chain in the world of the man in the Bubble that they just don't count in his mind. And they know it, you know it, and I know it.
-D.
Who Disremembered?
All eyes and ears of those who are spellbound by the so-called CIA leak trial will be on Judith Miller today, as the former New York Times reporter takes the stand to talk about her memory of what Lewis "Scooter" Libby may have told her about CIA officer Valerie Plame.
A twist from Monday's testimony by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer that's gone largely unnoticed is this:
Fleischer testified that on July 11, 2003, he told three reporters -- including John Dickerson, who then worked for Time -- that Plame worked at the CIA.
But Dickerson, now at Slate, remembers things differently. He says Fleischer didn't say anything about Plame -- only that reporters should look into who sent retired U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson (Plame's husband) on a fact-finding trip to Niger.
Will another witness now be subpoened? Why would Ari admit to something he didn't say? Get your popcorn, the Queen of Iraq has yet to disremember.
-D.
A twist from Monday's testimony by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer that's gone largely unnoticed is this:
Fleischer testified that on July 11, 2003, he told three reporters -- including John Dickerson, who then worked for Time -- that Plame worked at the CIA.
But Dickerson, now at Slate, remembers things differently. He says Fleischer didn't say anything about Plame -- only that reporters should look into who sent retired U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson (Plame's husband) on a fact-finding trip to Niger.
Will another witness now be subpoened? Why would Ari admit to something he didn't say? Get your popcorn, the Queen of Iraq has yet to disremember.
-D.
Lack of foresight by Bush for 'surge' leaves troops without needed equipment.
Still, U.S. commanders privately expressed doubts that Iraq-bound units would receive a full complement of Humvees. "It's inevitable that that has to happen, unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky," one senior Army official said of the feared shortfall. He expects that some units would have to rely more heavily on Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks that, although highly protective, are intimidating and therefore less effective for many counterinsurgency missions.
Thinking ahead has never been Bush's forte.
-D.
Thinking ahead has never been Bush's forte.
-D.
Lack of Dental Care for the Poor
Michael Coates cries after Dr. Heather Olson, left, of the Auburn Community Dental Clinic, tells him his blood pressure is too high for her to administer a pain-relief injection. Coates, suffering with four infected wisdom teeth, got the shot later but cannot afford to have the teeth pulled as needed.
Continue reading here.
-D.
Our Saudi Allies
Saudi Arabia, which already has aggressively shaved its oil output in a battle to shore up prices, is tightening its spigots further this week.
A senior Saudi oil official said yesterday the kingdom had advised its customers of the impending 158,000 barrel-a-day cut, which takes effect Feb. 1. The reductions, part of a broader campaign by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, are intended to shrink inventories of oil that had ballooned last year as demand growth for petroleum faltered.
How dare we fill our tanks for under $2 a gallon! The nerve.
-D.
A senior Saudi oil official said yesterday the kingdom had advised its customers of the impending 158,000 barrel-a-day cut, which takes effect Feb. 1. The reductions, part of a broader campaign by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, are intended to shrink inventories of oil that had ballooned last year as demand growth for petroleum faltered.
How dare we fill our tanks for under $2 a gallon! The nerve.
-D.
Tuesday's Surge
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombers killed 36 people in attacks on Shi'ite worshippers marking the climax of the religious festival of Ashura near Baghdad on Tuesday and gunmen killed four in Baghdad's southwestern district of Bayaa.
That surge is really working well, I see.
-D.
That surge is really working well, I see.
-D.
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Gatekeepers
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.
This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.
One word: fascist. That is all.
-D.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.
This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.
One word: fascist. That is all.
-D.
Armchair warriors get your hard-on.
(CBS/AP) Outright war between the United States and Iran remains only a remote possibility, but the two countries already are fighting a proxy war inside Iraq, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
U.S. officials tell CBS News that serial numbers on parts used to make advanced explosive devices powerful enough to breach the armor on an American tank have been traced directly back to Iran. These officials also say rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles found in Iraq bear Iranian factory markings. Last May, a British helicopter was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile supplied by Iran.
Hey, if we stay in Iraq long enough, how many countries do you think we can end up at war with?
-D.
U.S. officials tell CBS News that serial numbers on parts used to make advanced explosive devices powerful enough to breach the armor on an American tank have been traced directly back to Iran. These officials also say rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles found in Iraq bear Iranian factory markings. Last May, a British helicopter was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile supplied by Iran.
Hey, if we stay in Iraq long enough, how many countries do you think we can end up at war with?
-D.
Gotdamn One Track Minded Fundies
PIERRE, S.D. -- Abortion opponents, hoping to get around voters' objections to a previous measure, announced a bill Monday that would ban the procedure in the state except in limited instances.
Those who oppose abortion hope the measure will become the vehicle for a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
State lawmakers approved a bill last year that would have permitted abortions only when women's lives were in danger, but a petition campaign put the issue on the ballot. Voters rejected the proposal in November by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.
The latest legislation is designed to appeal to voters who oppose abortion but feel there should be exceptions in cases of rape, incest and serious endangerment of a woman's health. Last year's measure did not contain those exclusions.
It's abundantly clear that this *is* all there is to life for a fundie. I'd almost feel sorry for them, but they'd most certainly only use the opportunity to get close and stick a hook through my uterus. So...fuck 'em.
-D.
Those who oppose abortion hope the measure will become the vehicle for a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
State lawmakers approved a bill last year that would have permitted abortions only when women's lives were in danger, but a petition campaign put the issue on the ballot. Voters rejected the proposal in November by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.
The latest legislation is designed to appeal to voters who oppose abortion but feel there should be exceptions in cases of rape, incest and serious endangerment of a woman's health. Last year's measure did not contain those exclusions.
It's abundantly clear that this *is* all there is to life for a fundie. I'd almost feel sorry for them, but they'd most certainly only use the opportunity to get close and stick a hook through my uterus. So...fuck 'em.
-D.
Airhead Ari?
"Ambassador Wilson was sent by his wife," Fleischer recalled Libby saying. "His wife works for the CIA."
Fleischer said Libby also used the woman's name,
Valerie Plame, and told him it was "hush hush."
"My sense is that Mr. Libby was telling me this was kind of newsy," Fleischer said.
Fleischer testified under an immunity deal with prosecutors and arrived in court with his attorneys. He sought the deal because he discussed Plame with reporters. Libby's attorneys plan to argue during cross-examination that the immunity deal makes Fleischer's testimony less credible.
Prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg sought to head off that argument early in Fleischer's testimony by having him describe his deal.
"I cannot be prosecuted for what I did with the information I was provided," Fleischer said. "The immunity provides no protection for perjury."
"Hush hush" from White House administration translated to "kind of newsy" to the White House press secretary? Methinks Ari thinks we all just fell off a turnip truck.
-D.
Fleischer said Libby also used the woman's name,
Valerie Plame, and told him it was "hush hush."
"My sense is that Mr. Libby was telling me this was kind of newsy," Fleischer said.
Fleischer testified under an immunity deal with prosecutors and arrived in court with his attorneys. He sought the deal because he discussed Plame with reporters. Libby's attorneys plan to argue during cross-examination that the immunity deal makes Fleischer's testimony less credible.
Prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg sought to head off that argument early in Fleischer's testimony by having him describe his deal.
"I cannot be prosecuted for what I did with the information I was provided," Fleischer said. "The immunity provides no protection for perjury."
"Hush hush" from White House administration translated to "kind of newsy" to the White House press secretary? Methinks Ari thinks we all just fell off a turnip truck.
-D.
[REUTERS/Sheng Li]
Children use the toilet at a welfare house in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province January 27, 2007. The welfare house houses about 140 abandoned children, many of whom are disabled.
-D.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday Night Decompression Chamber
I'll be broadcasting live from 9-midnight Central, tonite - basically a relaxing, wind-it-down Sunday night show. You'll hear some ambient, chill, lounge, jazz and Music for Sinners.
Here's the link. (Or you can grab it from The Zen Cabin) It may ask you which program you'd like to use to listen to the show. WMP works but I haven't had any feedback from iTunes users or Mac users yet.
You can e-mail comments or suggestions, or send me a message via AIM/Skype at 'hailripley'. I hope you'll check it out and enjoy the show.
Rip -
Here's the link. (Or you can grab it from The Zen Cabin) It may ask you which program you'd like to use to listen to the show. WMP works but I haven't had any feedback from iTunes users or Mac users yet.
You can e-mail comments or suggestions, or send me a message via AIM/Skype at 'hailripley'. I hope you'll check it out and enjoy the show.
Rip -
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Baghdad- Ongoing violence in and around Baghdad claimed at
least 47 more Iraqi lives on Sunday despite beefed-up security and
police raids.
In Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, a car bomb killed
eight Iraqis and wounded 15 others in a district dominated by Shiites
and Kurds. The car implanted with a bomb was detonated in a busy car
market.
Adel Abdel-Mohsen, adviser to the Minister of Industry, was shot
down by armed militants in Yarmouk district, western Baghdad. His two
daughters and three other accompanies were also killed.
Earlier, and in the same area, an adviser for the Agriculture
Ministry was also killed, reported state Al-Iraqia channel.
The Agriculture Ministry official was accompanying four other
Iraqis in a vehicle when they were shot at by armed militants in
Yarmouk district, western Baghdad. The official, whose name was not
disclosed, and his escorts died instantly.
Another Iraqi was killed, and seven were wounded, when an
explosive device blew up inside a mini-bus in the east of the
violent-marred capital.
Near al-Nedaa, a Sunni mosque northern Baghdad, a person was
killed and nine others were wounded when an explosive-laden car,
parked on the side of the road, blew up.
The street was busy with labourers looking for day jobs.
Separately, eyewitnesses told Deustche Presse-Agentur dpa that mortar
shells fell on a school western Baghdad killing five female students
and wounding 20 others.
In Shiite-dominated Sadr city, eastern Baghdad, a vehicle
exploded, killing at least four people and wounding 32 others.
Feel the surge.
-D.
least 47 more Iraqi lives on Sunday despite beefed-up security and
police raids.
In Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, a car bomb killed
eight Iraqis and wounded 15 others in a district dominated by Shiites
and Kurds. The car implanted with a bomb was detonated in a busy car
market.
Adel Abdel-Mohsen, adviser to the Minister of Industry, was shot
down by armed militants in Yarmouk district, western Baghdad. His two
daughters and three other accompanies were also killed.
Earlier, and in the same area, an adviser for the Agriculture
Ministry was also killed, reported state Al-Iraqia channel.
The Agriculture Ministry official was accompanying four other
Iraqis in a vehicle when they were shot at by armed militants in
Yarmouk district, western Baghdad. The official, whose name was not
disclosed, and his escorts died instantly.
Another Iraqi was killed, and seven were wounded, when an
explosive device blew up inside a mini-bus in the east of the
violent-marred capital.
Near al-Nedaa, a Sunni mosque northern Baghdad, a person was
killed and nine others were wounded when an explosive-laden car,
parked on the side of the road, blew up.
The street was busy with labourers looking for day jobs.
Separately, eyewitnesses told Deustche Presse-Agentur dpa that mortar
shells fell on a school western Baghdad killing five female students
and wounding 20 others.
In Shiite-dominated Sadr city, eastern Baghdad, a vehicle
exploded, killing at least four people and wounding 32 others.
Feel the surge.
-D.
Wanker of the Day
Hakuo Yanagisawa.
TOKYO -- Japan's health minister described women as "birth-giving machines" in a speech on the falling birthrate, drawing criticism despite an immediate apology.
"The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth-giving machines (and) devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head," Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said in a speech Saturday, the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers reported.
Jeezus. Here I thought Tommy Thompson was the worst head of Health and Human Services...
-D.
Get your surge on.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Mortar shells rained down Sunday on a girls' secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing four pupils and wounding 21, witnesses and police said. At least seven other people died in a series of bombings and shootings across the capital.
Even though previous increases in U.S. troops throughout Baghdad have resulted in increased death and violence, Bush presses on with this 'new' strategery of surge.
This war is only continuing to satisfy a few politician's egos, and they can pass on the fiasco to new leaders and call them 'losers' when they end the needless deaths and destruction. What a legacy!
-D.
The Numbers Game.
Washington- Officially, more than 23,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in combat in Iraq. But more than double that number have fallen ill or been injured in what the Pentagon considers "nonhostile" action, a way of counting that critics say hides the war's full toll.
If the Pentagon also counted soldiers who were hurt in crashes or circumstances not directly involving skirmishes with the enemy, and those so sick that they required air transport, the figure would come to about 50,000, the Pentagon's own figures show.
...
Harvard researcher Linda Bilmes, who with Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz has done research on the cost of the war, insists the 50,000-wounded figure is the most accurate. That's a ratio of 16 wounded service member for every death.
"That's the highest killed-to-wounded ratio in U.S. history," she said in a research paper this month.
...
Yet an even bigger number can be used to cite the human and economic impact of the Iraq war on U.S. soldiers. Thirty-two percent of all veterans of the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan - 205,097 of the 631,174 troops who had returned and been discharged as of November - have sought medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This comes from the VA itself.
Mental disorders accounted for nearly 36 percent of the VA cases, and diseases related to muscle, joints and bones for another 43 percent, according to the VA.
A full 25 percent of the returning veterans have filed claims for some level of disability benefits, and they have been approved so far at a rate of 88 percent, says Bilmes. The VA already has a backlog of claims, and it is likely to grow much worse as many more troops return.
The Bush administration...breaking records in public disapproval ratings, and wreaking havoc on human lives. Feel the surge.
-D.
If the Pentagon also counted soldiers who were hurt in crashes or circumstances not directly involving skirmishes with the enemy, and those so sick that they required air transport, the figure would come to about 50,000, the Pentagon's own figures show.
...
Harvard researcher Linda Bilmes, who with Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz has done research on the cost of the war, insists the 50,000-wounded figure is the most accurate. That's a ratio of 16 wounded service member for every death.
"That's the highest killed-to-wounded ratio in U.S. history," she said in a research paper this month.
...
Yet an even bigger number can be used to cite the human and economic impact of the Iraq war on U.S. soldiers. Thirty-two percent of all veterans of the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan - 205,097 of the 631,174 troops who had returned and been discharged as of November - have sought medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This comes from the VA itself.
Mental disorders accounted for nearly 36 percent of the VA cases, and diseases related to muscle, joints and bones for another 43 percent, according to the VA.
A full 25 percent of the returning veterans have filed claims for some level of disability benefits, and they have been approved so far at a rate of 88 percent, says Bilmes. The VA already has a backlog of claims, and it is likely to grow much worse as many more troops return.
The Bush administration...breaking records in public disapproval ratings, and wreaking havoc on human lives. Feel the surge.
-D.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Ghost of Katherine Harris's Past...
Democrat Christine Jennings has new reason to hope she may still be seated in the 110th Congress after a Florida court ruled in her favor yesterday, denying a motion that would have ended her appeal for a new election in Katherine Harris's old district in Sarasota.
But the race -- and Jennings's legal case -- is far from decided.
Her appeal is based on widespread complaints that electronic voting machines in Sarasota County failed to record thousands of votes in the race. The official count shows Jennings losing to her Republican opponent, Vern Buchanan, who has been sworn in provisionally, by 369 votes.
According to the official tally, 15 percent of those who turned out on Election Day chose to skip over the Congressional race. But hundreds of voters reported that though they tried repeatedly, they could not get the touch screen voting machines to register a vote in that one race.
Earlier, a Florida circuit judge had denied Jennings's access to the voting machines, citing privacy concerns for the manufacturer, Election Systems & Software. She appealed that ruling, and the district appeals court yesterday dismissed a motion that her appeal be denied, which means that the case can now go forward: "It's a good sign they're open to considering it," said Jennings campaign spokesman David Kochman. "It would have been a tough hit if we had lost it."
A new report from electronic voting experts casts doubt on Florida's official position, which is that it was poor ballot design that led to the undervote. The authors of the report, David Dill of Stanford University and Walter Mebane of Cornell University, wrote that "a very strong statistical link between a specific error message in the machine's event log and a high undervote rate on that machine may be an indication of a mechanical cause of high undervotes."
Uhhh...DUHH!
~SSquirrel
But the race -- and Jennings's legal case -- is far from decided.
Her appeal is based on widespread complaints that electronic voting machines in Sarasota County failed to record thousands of votes in the race. The official count shows Jennings losing to her Republican opponent, Vern Buchanan, who has been sworn in provisionally, by 369 votes.
According to the official tally, 15 percent of those who turned out on Election Day chose to skip over the Congressional race. But hundreds of voters reported that though they tried repeatedly, they could not get the touch screen voting machines to register a vote in that one race.
Earlier, a Florida circuit judge had denied Jennings's access to the voting machines, citing privacy concerns for the manufacturer, Election Systems & Software. She appealed that ruling, and the district appeals court yesterday dismissed a motion that her appeal be denied, which means that the case can now go forward: "It's a good sign they're open to considering it," said Jennings campaign spokesman David Kochman. "It would have been a tough hit if we had lost it."
A new report from electronic voting experts casts doubt on Florida's official position, which is that it was poor ballot design that led to the undervote. The authors of the report, David Dill of Stanford University and Walter Mebane of Cornell University, wrote that "a very strong statistical link between a specific error message in the machine's event log and a high undervote rate on that machine may be an indication of a mechanical cause of high undervotes."
Uhhh...DUHH!
~SSquirrel
More Probably Not a Pony News...
"Just before Marcie put her husband on a medevac to a hospital in Orlando, Florida, a nurse handed her a folder, which she put in her purse. "I went down to get Merlin's bags," Marcie recalls, "and the soldier who brought me to the van told me, 'Put everything in the laundry right away. Don't touch this stuff. Don't breathe around it. It's got that bug the guys are bringing back from Iraq.'"
Iwant a new drug...
~SSquirrel
Iwant a new drug...
~SSquirrel
It's Saturday!
Wakey, wakey, kids! It's time to get up and get a move on. Here's some fun stuff to watch while you're waiting for the coffee to kick in.
The Living End - Long Live the Weekend
Evolution of Dance
Chemical Brothers- Believe
Enjoy your weekend!
Rip -
The Living End - Long Live the Weekend
Evolution of Dance
Chemical Brothers- Believe
Enjoy your weekend!
Rip -
Friday, January 26, 2007
Friday Night Delights
Do you like Reggae? Do you like Friday nights? You're in luck!
Rather than put up a Reggae mix tonite, I thought I'd stream it live at
10pm Central. It will quickly devolve into Drunk Bastards Friday Night
Drinking Club music. I hope you'll give it a listen - suggestions and
comments are welcome, and requests will be given their proper due. (If you
want me to play something, send it to me.)
The Zen Cabin
I'll probably broadcast for 3 hours or so. Tell your Mama, tell your Papa!
Rip -
Rather than put up a Reggae mix tonite, I thought I'd stream it live at
10pm Central. It will quickly devolve into Drunk Bastards Friday Night
Drinking Club music. I hope you'll give it a listen - suggestions and
comments are welcome, and requests will be given their proper due. (If you
want me to play something, send it to me.)
The Zen Cabin
I'll probably broadcast for 3 hours or so. Tell your Mama, tell your Papa!
Rip -
WTF?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surprisingly strong gains reported in sales of new homes and new orders for costly manufactured goods in December signaled more vigor in some soft economic sectors but dashed hopes for early interest-rate cuts.
The two Commerce Department reports on Friday cemented market expectations that the Federal Reserve's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee will keep rates on hold when it holds a two-day meeting Tuesday and Wednesday.
...
"The problem for the Fed is that the FOMC meets next week and they have these strong housing data and even better general economic numbers to contend with," said economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland Pennsylvania.
"The slowdown they had been pointing to is no longer there," he added.
Over the full year 2006, new-home sales dropped 17.3 percent from 2005, the steepest fall in 16 years and the first year-over-year decline after a five-year rally.
Perhaps someone who paid attention in economics class could 'splain to me how in the hell you have a 17.3% decrease in new-home sales in a single year -- even with a decent showing in one month out of the year -- yet you wrap it all up in a bow, plop it down in the middle of the WaPo front page declaring the slowdown is over?
But then this baffles me, too:
"If this economy gets too good because of housing, or not (because of) housing, I worry what the Federal Reserve is going to do," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors in Albany, New York.
Did I miss a chapter 'splainin' how a pretty run in the stock market equals a thriving American economy?
-D.
The two Commerce Department reports on Friday cemented market expectations that the Federal Reserve's policy-making Federal Open Market Committee will keep rates on hold when it holds a two-day meeting Tuesday and Wednesday.
...
"The problem for the Fed is that the FOMC meets next week and they have these strong housing data and even better general economic numbers to contend with," said economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland Pennsylvania.
"The slowdown they had been pointing to is no longer there," he added.
Over the full year 2006, new-home sales dropped 17.3 percent from 2005, the steepest fall in 16 years and the first year-over-year decline after a five-year rally.
Perhaps someone who paid attention in economics class could 'splain to me how in the hell you have a 17.3% decrease in new-home sales in a single year -- even with a decent showing in one month out of the year -- yet you wrap it all up in a bow, plop it down in the middle of the WaPo front page declaring the slowdown is over?
But then this baffles me, too:
"If this economy gets too good because of housing, or not (because of) housing, I worry what the Federal Reserve is going to do," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors in Albany, New York.
Did I miss a chapter 'splainin' how a pretty run in the stock market equals a thriving American economy?
-D.
From the Evil Associated Press...
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor’s office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away
Truthiness, it burns the wingnuts.
-D.
Truthiness, it burns the wingnuts.
-D.
Busted.
Wikipedia has come of age. The online user-created encyclopedia is now influential enough that the federal government feels the need to doctor it up.
In late August, someone with an IP address that originated from the National Institutes of Health drastically edited the Wikipedia entry for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which operates within NIH. Wikipedia determined the edit to be vandalism and automatically changed the definition back to the original. On Sept. 18, the NIH vandal returned, according to a history of the site's edits posted by Wikipedia. This time, the definition was gradually changed, presumably to avoid the vandalism detector.
NIDA spokeswoman Dorie Hightower confirmed that her agency was behind the editing. She said in an e-mail that the definition was changed "to reflect the science."
A little more than science-reflecting was done to the site. Gone first was the "Controversial research" section that included comments critical of NIDA. Next went the section on the NIDA-sponsored program that grows marijuana for research and medical purposes. The next slice of the federal editor's knife left all outside references on the cutting-room floor, replaced with links to government Web sites.
The Feds certainly aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
-D.
In late August, someone with an IP address that originated from the National Institutes of Health drastically edited the Wikipedia entry for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which operates within NIH. Wikipedia determined the edit to be vandalism and automatically changed the definition back to the original. On Sept. 18, the NIH vandal returned, according to a history of the site's edits posted by Wikipedia. This time, the definition was gradually changed, presumably to avoid the vandalism detector.
NIDA spokeswoman Dorie Hightower confirmed that her agency was behind the editing. She said in an e-mail that the definition was changed "to reflect the science."
A little more than science-reflecting was done to the site. Gone first was the "Controversial research" section that included comments critical of NIDA. Next went the section on the NIDA-sponsored program that grows marijuana for research and medical purposes. The next slice of the federal editor's knife left all outside references on the cutting-room floor, replaced with links to government Web sites.
The Feds certainly aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
-D.
Suddenly I See
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration sought on Thursday to drop its appeal of a federal court ruling that concluded the government's domestic spying program is unconstitutional, saying the entire issue is moot since the surveillance now is monitored by a secret court.
What a crock of shit.
That is all.
-D.
What a crock of shit.
That is all.
-D.
"Just like LA" -- Some right-wing nutjob
Salah Mehdi Hamza, a popular children's doctor who had been kidnapped in Baghdad, was killed even though his family handed over a $40,000 (£20,000) ransom and a box full of jewels and gold ornaments to the gang who seized him.
Kidnappers have preyed on Iraqis for three-and-a-half years, holding thousands in safe houses and basements while desperate relatives try to raise the money for their release. Often they kill their victims despite receiving a ransom. Fear of abduction as much as anything has forced 1.8 million Iraqis, including the best-educated and richest, to flee the country.
People who try to help others are the most vulnerable. Dr Hamza was in his clinic in the al-Khudat district of west Baghdad on 16 January when a man knocked on the door and said a woman was in a car downstairs, too sick to move. The doctor grabbed his bag and went to see her. When he got to the car, a gun was stuck in his back and he was taken away.
His kidnappers at first demanded $100,000 but his relatives could only raise $40,000 in cash. They added his wife's wedding ornaments. The ransom was taken by a group of women, all teachers at the Shatt al-Arab primary school where his mother is the headmistress. They went to al-Likaa Square near al-Askan Children's Hospital, as the kidnappers had demanded. No men were among those bringing the ransom because it was feared they too might be kidnapped.
The kidnappers promised that the doctor would be released the next day. Instead, Dr Hamza's body was found on 20 January beside the road in Fourth Street, a four-lane highway in the Yarmouk district of west Baghdad. His was one of some 40 bodies, many of them tortured, found in Baghdad that day.
I keep searching for those pockets of good news in Iraq, but alas, reality keeps biting me in the ass.
-D.
Kidnappers have preyed on Iraqis for three-and-a-half years, holding thousands in safe houses and basements while desperate relatives try to raise the money for their release. Often they kill their victims despite receiving a ransom. Fear of abduction as much as anything has forced 1.8 million Iraqis, including the best-educated and richest, to flee the country.
People who try to help others are the most vulnerable. Dr Hamza was in his clinic in the al-Khudat district of west Baghdad on 16 January when a man knocked on the door and said a woman was in a car downstairs, too sick to move. The doctor grabbed his bag and went to see her. When he got to the car, a gun was stuck in his back and he was taken away.
His kidnappers at first demanded $100,000 but his relatives could only raise $40,000 in cash. They added his wife's wedding ornaments. The ransom was taken by a group of women, all teachers at the Shatt al-Arab primary school where his mother is the headmistress. They went to al-Likaa Square near al-Askan Children's Hospital, as the kidnappers had demanded. No men were among those bringing the ransom because it was feared they too might be kidnapped.
The kidnappers promised that the doctor would be released the next day. Instead, Dr Hamza's body was found on 20 January beside the road in Fourth Street, a four-lane highway in the Yarmouk district of west Baghdad. His was one of some 40 bodies, many of them tortured, found in Baghdad that day.
I keep searching for those pockets of good news in Iraq, but alas, reality keeps biting me in the ass.
-D.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
World War George...
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy.
The White House has authorized a widening of what is known inside the intelligence community as the "Blue Game Matrix" -- a list of approved operations that can be carried out against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. And U.S. officials are preparing international sanctions against Tehran for holding several dozen al-Qaeda fighters who fled across the Afghan border in late 2001. They plan more aggressive moves to disrupt Tehran's funding of the radical Palestinian group Hamas and to undermine Iranian interests among Shiites in western Afghanistan.
In Iraq, U.S. troops now have the authority to target any member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, as well as officers of its intelligence services believed to be working with Iraqi militias. The policy does not extend to Iranian civilians or diplomats. Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority.
The wide-ranging plan has several influential skeptics in the intelligence community, at the State Department and at the Defense Department who said that they worry it could push the growing conflict between Tehran and Washington into the center of a chaotic Iraq war.
"This has little to do with Iraq. It's all about pushing Iran's buttons. It is purely political," one official said.
We have troops in Lebanon? I've been checking AP every five minutes to see if we've started bombing Iran yet...Somebody check what's the next night with no moon in Iran, the air force ain't subtle either...
~SSquirrel
The Prez-nit 'Splains Why Victory Is Assured...
"I don't see any signal that the president is ready to listen. Nonetheless I pray — and I use the word very, very specifically — pray that he will go to another place on Iraq."
~Nancy Pants
In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president's minimalist explanation for his confidence in the new surge of 21,500 U.S. troops that he has presented as the crux of a new "way forward" for U.S. forces in Iraq. "He's tried this two times — it's failed twice," the California Democrat said. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.' " Asked if the president had elaborated, she added that he simply said, " 'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."
And why it's not his fault that it's gonna fail (a third time).
Dudes brain just ain't wired right, he makes " 'cause I said so..." sound profound...
Be Afraid, Be very Afraid
~S(cared)Squirrel
Priorities...
Tony Blair has been accused of treating the House of Commons with contempt by failing to stay in the chamber to hear MPs protest about his disastrous handling of the chaos in Iraq.
As MPs yesterday staged the first Iraq debate in government time since the war, the Prime Minister retreated to the quiet of his oak-panelled office behind the Speaker's chair to prepare for a series of private meetings on more pressing matters - the row over gay adoption, a weekly briefing with a handful of senior backbenchers, and a speech to the CBI.
Sounds just like America.
-D.
As MPs yesterday staged the first Iraq debate in government time since the war, the Prime Minister retreated to the quiet of his oak-panelled office behind the Speaker's chair to prepare for a series of private meetings on more pressing matters - the row over gay adoption, a weekly briefing with a handful of senior backbenchers, and a speech to the CBI.
Sounds just like America.
-D.
Countdown Continues...Nine Days 'Til B.A.D. Saturday...
Nine more days until the Blogroll flush heard 'round the world. The tension builds, the world waits...tick...tick...tick...
for those of you who still have fingernails...
~S(nickering)Squirrel
for those of you who still have fingernails...
~S(nickering)Squirrel
Malevolent Michelle Is Back...lazy f*&kin snipers...
"In our area the sounds of gunfire have hardly stopped the past few days. This morning I heard some explosions nearby, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The explosions intensify from time to time depending on the intensity and proximity of clashes. In general, the news reports we get in the city, and the information we hear from friends and relatives, indicate that most of the fighting is going on in Sleikh, Qaqhera, Azamaiya, al-Fadhl and Haifa street."
~Mohammed Fadhil
Read the whole thing. Much better coverage than you'll get from the deceptive AP. Bryan explains.
~Mad Michelle
Mohammed sounds like a fine reporter, later he was quoted screaming "Am I on fire again? Is my head up my butt again? I can't see, will somebody check? Does anyone else smell orange peel?...
This is Mohamed Faidel, reporting live from...uhhh...hmmm...seems to be a cardboard box..."
Better sell your AP stock right away folks, Michelle is never wrong...
~S(ROTFLMAO)Squirrel
~Mohammed Fadhil
Read the whole thing. Much better coverage than you'll get from the deceptive AP. Bryan explains.
~Mad Michelle
Mohammed sounds like a fine reporter, later he was quoted screaming "Am I on fire again? Is my head up my butt again? I can't see, will somebody check? Does anyone else smell orange peel?...
This is Mohamed Faidel, reporting live from...uhhh...hmmm...seems to be a cardboard box..."
Better sell your AP stock right away folks, Michelle is never wrong...
~S(ROTFLMAO)Squirrel
So there!
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with herbicide this year despite a record crop in 2006 and U.S. pressure to allow the drug-fighting tactic, officials said Thursday.
President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet decided Sunday to hold off on using chemicals for now, said Said Mohammad Azam, spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics.
"There will be no ground spraying this year," Azam told The Associated Press.
What next? An announcement that poppies are the national flower?
-D.
Preznit Cheney
Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone, striking a far more combative tone than President Bush did in his State of the Union address the night before.
In a television interview that turned increasingly contentious as it wore on, Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted even among Bush supporters. "There's problems" in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation." And congressional opposition "won't stop us" from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy."
Okay Scottie. You can beam him up now. Anytime.
-D.
In a television interview that turned increasingly contentious as it wore on, Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted even among Bush supporters. "There's problems" in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation." And congressional opposition "won't stop us" from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy."
Okay Scottie. You can beam him up now. Anytime.
-D.
Brought to you by the Military, and the Geniacs at Raytheon
(AP) The military's new weapon is a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they will catch fire.
The technology is supposed to be harmless — a non-lethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons. Military officials say it could save the lives of innocent civilians and service members in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The weapon is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, officials said.
Supposed to be? Oy.
-D.
The technology is supposed to be harmless — a non-lethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons. Military officials say it could save the lives of innocent civilians and service members in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The weapon is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, officials said.
Supposed to be? Oy.
-D.
Counting the Homeless
Oakland Co. in Michigan(this is the area I just moved from) is going to begin a physical count of the homeless in the area. This will be a report to watch for, as I expect the numbers to truly be astounding based on my work with that population. The cost of living in the area is much higher than other areas of the state, and due to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs -- mostly in the auto industry -- the falling real estate values, and higher property tax rates.
This should be proof that middle America has fallen right of the map and vanished into back alleys and boxes under the overpasses. Thriving economy, my ass.
-D.
This should be proof that middle America has fallen right of the map and vanished into back alleys and boxes under the overpasses. Thriving economy, my ass.
-D.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Cheney: "Wolf, you're out of line"
I guess it's only acceptable to discuss the morals that the right tries to enforce upon everyone else when it doesn't involve members of their family. Hmmph.
-D.
Election Fraud
CLEVELAND — Two election workers in the state’s most populous county were convicted today of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount.
I understand that President Kerry won't be seeking re-election in '08. Can't say that I blame him, just as I can't blame President Gore.
It's quite a debacle that our next President will take on, one that I wouldn't wish on an enemy, much less a person I admired. I don't really have anything to add regarding the decided hopefuls at this point. Now if Howard Dean changes his mind and decides to jump in, then I'll get excited about it all.
-D.
I understand that President Kerry won't be seeking re-election in '08. Can't say that I blame him, just as I can't blame President Gore.
It's quite a debacle that our next President will take on, one that I wouldn't wish on an enemy, much less a person I admired. I don't really have anything to add regarding the decided hopefuls at this point. Now if Howard Dean changes his mind and decides to jump in, then I'll get excited about it all.
-D.
[REUTERS/Ho]
Berlin zoo employee Thomas Doerflein plays with polar bear cub Knut in this undated picture, released on January 24, 2007. Knut, born on December 5, 2006, has had to be hand fed by Doerflein after its mother Tosca refused the baby.
-D.
No Pony.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Four of the five Americans killed when a U.S. security company's helicopter crashed in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.
I'm waiting to hear the pocket of good news tucked in that day.
-D.
I'm waiting to hear the pocket of good news tucked in that day.
-D.
Great, but...
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush's plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest," an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander in chief.
The vote on the nonbinding measure was 12-9 and largely along party lines.
"We better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the sole Republican to join 11 Democrats in support of the measure.
Problem: Aren't they already there? They've been deploying from all over the country for weeks now.
-D.
The vote on the nonbinding measure was 12-9 and largely along party lines.
"We better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the sole Republican to join 11 Democrats in support of the measure.
Problem: Aren't they already there? They've been deploying from all over the country for weeks now.
-D.
New Plan, Blow Up Big Buildings...
"There is a fight going on. Units are engaged," Steven Lamb, a US military spokesman said on Wednesday, confirming an operation was under way to restore control to the mainly Sunni Arab area.Haifa Street, a long street of high-rise buildings, runs along the west bank of the Tigris River that cuts through the capital.
US armoured vehicles firing their heavy machine guns joined the fighting and troops also fired mortars after coming under machinegun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack during the operation to restore Iraqi security control of the Sunni stronghold.
"A lot has been coming from high-rise buildings. We are firing at terrorists in those buildings," Lamb said.
The Sunni Muslim Scholars Association condemned the raid, calling it "a campaign of genocide" and said a number of buildings had been demolished and people killed.
The US military said Wednesday's mission was "not an operation designed solely to target Sunni insurgents, but rather aimed at rapidly isolating all active insurgents and gaining control of this key central Baghdad location".
Meanwhile, a US soldier and two marines have been killed in Iraq, the military said, raising its losses this month to 53.
The soldier was shot dead and two were wounded on Wednesday while on patrol in central Baghdad, a statement said.
Security sources said a helicopter owned by Blackwater, a US security company, that crashed in the area on Tuesday was forced down after the pilot was shot dead.
Three others on board the aircraft, which had been guarding a diplomatic convoy on the ground, may have been shot on landing, they said, although other reports suggested they died when the aircraft crashed.
A fifth person on a second Blackwater helicopter was also shot dead.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, paid his condolences to the security contractors, who helped protect US embassy personnel, saying he had known them personally.
Call It the Israeli Variant(They call it Tomahawk 11, 'cause they chopped Baghdad into 11 sectors) And as always happens, most of the fighters just go to other towns, attack there, and then come back later. This sort of fighting leads to 20-30 dead civilians per dead bad guy. I guess the Shiia were taking to long to kill the Sunnis so we're gonna help out. I hope somebody is preparing for a million or so refugees from this "surge". Or maybe they meant purge, these White House guys aren't exactly geniuses...
~SSquirrel
PS Blogger sucks...
Declassified Poetry from Guantanamo
Harpers:
Jumah al-Dossari, originally from Bahrain, was seized by Pakistani security forces in late 2001 and turned over to the United States. The U.S. military brought him to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, where, he claims, he was beaten, his life was threatened, and he was isolated from other prisoners for long stretches of time. Dossari, who denies any connection to Al Qaeda or terrorism, and has never been charged with any such crime, has repeatedly attempted to commit suicide while imprisoned. His most recent attempt, according to Amnesty International, was in March 2006, when he tried to slit his throat.
Death Poem
By Jumah al-Dossari
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden, before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden, before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”
To be included in a book to be published this fall "Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak."
-D.
Jumah al-Dossari, originally from Bahrain, was seized by Pakistani security forces in late 2001 and turned over to the United States. The U.S. military brought him to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, where, he claims, he was beaten, his life was threatened, and he was isolated from other prisoners for long stretches of time. Dossari, who denies any connection to Al Qaeda or terrorism, and has never been charged with any such crime, has repeatedly attempted to commit suicide while imprisoned. His most recent attempt, according to Amnesty International, was in March 2006, when he tried to slit his throat.
Death Poem
By Jumah al-Dossari
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden, before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden, before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”
To be included in a book to be published this fall "Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak."
-D.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
SOTU
Think Progress does the SOTU with Live Blogging, and radio. Call-in line info, and station guide.
-D.
-D.
Fair and balanced Lip Gloss...
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa" are not accurate, according to CNN reporting.
Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.
He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."
Insight stood by its story in a response posted on its Web site Monday afternoon.
CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday.
"I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils.
An Obama aide described Fox News' broadcasting of the Insight story "appallingly irresponsible."
Fox News executive Bill Shine told CNN "Reliable Sources" anchor Howard Kurtz that some of the network's hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited Insight as the source of the allegations.
Rodger Ailes likes to say they've never had to retract a story. 'Course when all your reporting consists of what Steve Doofus, the weather guy, read in the Moonie Times over the weekend...
Just a little "hip and irreverant" slander of a US Senator or two, some people are just sooo touchy...
Fox and Friends brings a whole new dimension to "putting lipstick on a pig"
~S(innamon)Squirrel
Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.
He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."
Insight stood by its story in a response posted on its Web site Monday afternoon.
CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday.
"I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils.
An Obama aide described Fox News' broadcasting of the Insight story "appallingly irresponsible."
Fox News executive Bill Shine told CNN "Reliable Sources" anchor Howard Kurtz that some of the network's hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited Insight as the source of the allegations.
Rodger Ailes likes to say they've never had to retract a story. 'Course when all your reporting consists of what Steve Doofus, the weather guy, read in the Moonie Times over the weekend...
Just a little "hip and irreverant" slander of a US Senator or two, some people are just sooo touchy...
Fox and Friends brings a whole new dimension to "putting lipstick on a pig"
~S(innamon)Squirrel
Claiming the Dead
People look for their relatives killed in Monday's twin car bombing in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City at Bab al-Sharqi market, Tuesday Jan. 23, 2007, at the Imam Ali hospital yard in Baghdad, Iraq. Police said at least 88 people were killed and 168 wounded in the bombings. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
-D.
Surge on.
BAGHDAD, Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters clashed with gunmen in central Baghdad on Tuesday and two residents said a helicopter appeared to have made an emergency landing after being shot.
A police source also said they had reports of a helicopter coming down in the area but it was not clear whether it belonged to the U.S. military or a private security firm.
A U.S. military spokesman said he was checking the report but had no information yet.
The clashes took place on the east bank of the Tigris river in the centre of old Baghdad.
A reporter working for Reuters said up to around 50 military vehicles were in the area, backed by several helicopters, and there was sustained gunfire.
More troops, more war. This isn't rocket science.
-D.
A police source also said they had reports of a helicopter coming down in the area but it was not clear whether it belonged to the U.S. military or a private security firm.
A U.S. military spokesman said he was checking the report but had no information yet.
The clashes took place on the east bank of the Tigris river in the centre of old Baghdad.
A reporter working for Reuters said up to around 50 military vehicles were in the area, backed by several helicopters, and there was sustained gunfire.
More troops, more war. This isn't rocket science.
-D.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They're not listening still
Perhaps they never will...
-D.
CBS: 28%
(CBS) President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night to a nation that's strongly opposed to his plan for increasing troops in Iraq and deeply unhappy with his performance as president, according to a CBS News poll.
Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, a new low, while more than twice as many (64 percent) disapprove of the way he's handling his job.
How low will he go? Bets anyone?
-D.
FBI Sources Lied, FBI Ignored Foley...
A review by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI and Justice officials misled reporters last fall by claiming that the activist group that first provided the FBI with the e-mails had not been cooperative.
In fact, the report found that the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), notified the FBI within days of receiving the e-mails and that the FBI never sought any additional information from the group.
The 31-page report by Fine's office provides further evidence of how government and legislative officials took little action in response to growing complaints about Foley's conduct with underage pages. It also suggests that the officials attempted to minimize their response after the e-mails were publicized and Foley had resigned.
"We believe that the e-mails should have raised enough concerns to warrant some action," the report concludes. "At the least, the FBI should have ensured that supervisors of the House page program were aware of these e-mails, or informed the complainant that it was not going to investigate the e-mails and the complainant could therefore make such a notification."
Several officials at the FBI and Justice Department -- all of whom demanded anonymity at the time -- responded to the criticism by alleging that the e-mails provided by CREW had been "heavily redacted" and that the group had refused to provide further information to the FBI.
In fact, Fine's review found, the only things removed from the eight e-mails sent to the FBI was the identity of the person to whom the communications had been forwarded, which "were not significant redactions." What's more, the report said, the e-mails contained the full names of pages and of a House employee who received copies and that the "redactions in the e-mail did not factor into the FBI's decision to decline to investigate the matter."
CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said in a statement today that the group "stands out as the only party in this sordid affair to have done the right thing from the first instance."
"Not only did the FBI fail to investigate the possible sexual abuse of minors by a sitting member of Congress, the bureau then tried to cover up its shocking inaction by blaming CREW," Sloan said.
The FBI did nothing...and no one is shocked. Anybody tells you Republicans brought "honor and integrity" to anything in government, print out this story and make them eat it, I mean read it, no I don't...
S(ister Mary)Squirrel
In fact, the report found that the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), notified the FBI within days of receiving the e-mails and that the FBI never sought any additional information from the group.
The 31-page report by Fine's office provides further evidence of how government and legislative officials took little action in response to growing complaints about Foley's conduct with underage pages. It also suggests that the officials attempted to minimize their response after the e-mails were publicized and Foley had resigned.
"We believe that the e-mails should have raised enough concerns to warrant some action," the report concludes. "At the least, the FBI should have ensured that supervisors of the House page program were aware of these e-mails, or informed the complainant that it was not going to investigate the e-mails and the complainant could therefore make such a notification."
Several officials at the FBI and Justice Department -- all of whom demanded anonymity at the time -- responded to the criticism by alleging that the e-mails provided by CREW had been "heavily redacted" and that the group had refused to provide further information to the FBI.
In fact, Fine's review found, the only things removed from the eight e-mails sent to the FBI was the identity of the person to whom the communications had been forwarded, which "were not significant redactions." What's more, the report said, the e-mails contained the full names of pages and of a House employee who received copies and that the "redactions in the e-mail did not factor into the FBI's decision to decline to investigate the matter."
CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said in a statement today that the group "stands out as the only party in this sordid affair to have done the right thing from the first instance."
"Not only did the FBI fail to investigate the possible sexual abuse of minors by a sitting member of Congress, the bureau then tried to cover up its shocking inaction by blaming CREW," Sloan said.
The FBI did nothing...and no one is shocked. Anybody tells you Republicans brought "honor and integrity" to anything in government, print out this story and make them eat it, I mean read it, no I don't...
S(ister Mary)Squirrel
More questions than answers.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer A. Valdivia, 27, of Cambridge, Ill., was discovered deceased on Jan. 16, 2007, in Bahrain. Valdivia was assigned to the naval security force for Naval Support Activity, Bahrain.
Valdivia’s death was a non-combat related incident in Bahrain, which is located within the designated hostile fire zone. Valdivia’s death is under investigation.
This has been another installment of 'WTF is going on that they're not telling us now?'
-D.
Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer A. Valdivia, 27, of Cambridge, Ill., was discovered deceased on Jan. 16, 2007, in Bahrain. Valdivia was assigned to the naval security force for Naval Support Activity, Bahrain.
Valdivia’s death was a non-combat related incident in Bahrain, which is located within the designated hostile fire zone. Valdivia’s death is under investigation.
This has been another installment of 'WTF is going on that they're not telling us now?'
-D.
Shock and Awe
Relatives grieve over lost loved ones at al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Jan. 22, 2007. Two nearly simultaneous bombs struck a predominantly Shiite commercial area in central Baghdad, killing at least 78 people and wounding at least 156, said Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
-D.
Worst. Preznit. Ever.
The Senate plans to take up a nonbinding bipartisan resolution opposing the president's plan for troop deployments. But many Democrats in both chambers advocate even stronger measures designed to block the deployment, including capping the number of troops at their levels of Jan. 1 or putting strings on the money that would be allocated for new troops.
Such measures would have broad initial public support: 59 percent of all Americans, including more than a quarter of Republicans, want Congress to try to block the president's plan.
More broadly, Bush will be speaking on Tuesday night to a nation that is deeply pessimistic, with just 26 percent of Americans saying the country is heading in the right direction and 71 percent saying the country is seriously off track. That is the worst these ratings have been in more than a decade.
Bush's overall approval rating in the new poll is 33 percent, matching the lowest it has been in Post-ABC polls since he took office in 2001. Sixty-five percent say they disapprove of Bush.
Equally telling is the finding that 51 percent of Americans now strongly disapprove of his performance in office, the worst rating of his presidency. Just 17 percent strongly approve of the way he is handling his job.
Enjoy your legacy, Mr. Preznit.
-Diane
Surge
Seventy-five people have been killed in a double car bombing in Baghdad, Iraqi police have told the BBC.
One hundred and sixty others were injured in the two blasts at a second-hand market in the city centre.
This is the great plan, huh?
-D.
One hundred and sixty others were injured in the two blasts at a second-hand market in the city centre.
This is the great plan, huh?
-D.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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