Semi-Daily Statistic

From those guys at Harper's who are trying to pull the wool over our eyes (and now with color):

Percentage change between 2002 and 2003 in the number of U.S. buttock-augmentation surgeries : +533

US Soldier Gets Three Years for "Mercy Killing"

From BBC News:

A US soldier has been jailed for three years in a plea bargain following the murder of a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi, the military says.

Staff Sgt Johnny Horne Jr had pleaded guilty to the unpremeditated murder of the civilian youth in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb on 18 August.

He also pleaded guilty to soliciting another soldier to commit murder.

His defence said the death of the injured Iraqi was a "mercy killing" in collusion with another soldier.

The seven-person panel reached a decision on Friday evening after four hours of deliberation.

Horne was also reduced to the rank of private and given a dishonourable discharge.

His was one of a dozen courts martial hearings under way relating to action in Iraq.

The charges stem from an incident in Sadr City when coalition forces were locked in fierce fighting with supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

The court heard that members of Horne's unit fired on a rubbish truck they suspected of laying roadside bombs.

However, inside the lorry was a crew of teenage boys hoping to make some extra money on a night shift.

The soldiers, including Horne, tried to rescue one of the injured youths, according to witness testimony.

Several witnesses described the injured Iraqi as having severe abdominal wounds and burns. Some thought the casualty was beyond medical help.

Witnesses say Horne shot and killed one of the badly injured boys.

The US soldiers decided that "the best course of action was to put [the Iraqi] out of his misery", the criminal investigator told the court.

Ok, now I feel for this soldier, I really do. I understand the position he was put in. Killing the boy seemed like the humane thing to do, that he was putting him out of his misery. But you know what? That's not his decision to make. As a soldier, it is not your job to decide who is worth saving and who isn't. Yes, the boy would almost certainly have died anyway, but it doesn't matter. There is a code of conduct you must follow as a soldier, and it is drilled into you from day one. I do not think Horne is a monster, rather I think he is probably a kid who thought he was doing the right thing. But when it comes to war and politics, doing the "right thing" isn't always the "correct thing." A sad situation all around.

Lying to the Troops

This is just too disheartening for me to make a joke out of it. From USA Today:

Whitcomb spoke a day after Rumsfeld, questioned by Army Spc. Thomas Wilson at a meeting with troops in Kuwait, seemed to downplay concerns about a lack of armor.

On Thursday, Rumsfeld softened his tone. "It doesn't happen instantaneously, but it has been happening pretty rapidly," he said.

A day earlier, he had called it "a matter of physics, not a matter of money ... It's a matter of production and the capability of doing it." But spokesmen for two companies making armor for vehicles said Thursday they had offered to step up the pace of production:

• Former Republican congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona, a spokesman for ArmorWorks in Tempe, Ariz., said his company will finish a $30 million contract with the Pentagon this month to make 1,500 armor kits for Humvees. "We are at 50% capacity, and we could do a lot more," he said. "They are aware of it."

• Armor Holdings of Jacksonville told the Army last month it could add armor to as many as 550 trucks a month, up from 450, said Robert Mecredy of its aerospace and defense group. "We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month," he said.

Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Pentagon had no immediate response.

Kerik Pulls Out. . . Bush Angry He Stained Sheets

Yo, yo, yo, what's happenin' party people? It's Friday night, and I'm writing yet another paper. So that's what's happening in my life, let's check in on the world, shall we?

Earlier tonight, Bernard Kerik, Bush's nominee to head up the barely-there Dept. of Homeland Security has decided not accept the job after all. It seems one of his old housekeepers was an illegal alien which therefore brings up a whole bunch of tax-related issues for him. From CNN:

Kerik said in a news release the immigration problem with the former housekeeper and nanny was discovered while he was completing documents required for his Senate confirmation.

He said he also learned "that for a period of time during such employment, required tax payments and related filings had not been made."

In a letter to Bush, Kerik said that while serving in the Cabinet post would have been "the honor of a lifetime, I am convinced that, for personal reasons, moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people.

"Under the present circumstances ... I cannot permit matters personal to me to distract from the focus and progress of the Department of Homeland Security and its crucial endeavors."

My question is: who in New York hasn't hired an illegal alien at some point in their life? It's practically a rite of passage.

But, perhaps all is for the better. Check out this from ABC News:

Bush's nomination of Kerik quickly proved controversial. News reports in recent days focused on revelations that Kerik had made millions of dollars a stun gun company that sold weapons to the Homeland Security Department and which wants more business. The White House had said that Kerik would avoid any conflicts of interest.

Records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Kerik made $6.2 million by exercising stock options he received from Taser International. He has been a consultant for the company and still serves on its board of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned to sever the relationship.

If you're still interested, you should read what the guys over at the Center for American Progress have got on the man.

Before We Get Back to the Regular. . .

The crazy thing is that it happened on December 8th, the anniversary of Lennon's death. Don't get me wrong, I'm not equating the two (though I bet my friend Jed would argue Dimebag's importance over Lennon's), I just think coincidences like that are worth pointing out.

Well, I guess I should throw this up too.

Brief Wrap Up

1) New York's state legislature finally did something and got Pataki to get off his ass and change the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Too bad the changes made are pretty insignificant. Yes, 8 to 20 is better than 15 years to life just for having a couple of ounces of drugs, but it still doesn't do anything about the real problem: mandatory minimums. Mandatory mininums should never, ever exist. They handcuff judicial discretion and jeopardize the three-branch system of government.


The changes were simply not far-reaching enough. While I do personally know some people who stand a good chance at getting out of prison now, I also know a whole bunch more guys who were sent up river for an unjust amount of time for whom these reforms will have no effect.

I'm also afraid that now that we have won a little ground, that people will walk away thinking they have won the war. We are far from reaching our goal, and I think a lot of people don't and won't realize it. I would love to talk about this more, but I don't have the time right now.


2) Everybody must read Mark Morford's column in the San Francisco Gate from last week. Yeah, I'm biting Sullivan's style by linking this, but it is a great piece of writing. Bam!


3) Read this, this,
this, and this

If you haven't figured it out yet, they're all on the same topic: troops questioning the war.

On a personal note, I just got to say that when a soldier asks Rumsfeld "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles" it really burns my britches. I mean, who does this soldier think he is? How dare he question the war! Doesn't he know that by doing so he puts our soldiers in harms way? Does he not support our troops? I liked soldiers better when they were cool and just wanted more Marlboro's, not when they actually question why their lives are placed in needless danger. You know, I'm pretty sure war is dangerous enough without our government shortchanging the troops.

GUEST BLOGGER

Due to my lack of blogging time, my dear friend Jed has kindly volunteered to submit a post on lip-synching. I haven't read it yet, so tell me how it is.

In Response to Lip-Synching

The Ashlee Simpson fiasco on “Saturday Night Live” should have been enough. It wasn’t. Now Lindsay Lohan, teen goddess, was caught lip-synching on “Good Morning America.”

As an ardent music fan, I have felt the need to comment on this for some time. The New York Post makes an interesting point, saying “Today’s teen-pop queens are too young to remember the shame that befell lip-synchers Milli Vanilli in 1990.” They may be, but I am not. Milli Vanilli was the ultimate embarrassment to music; they were the butt of jokes for years afterward, and one of its members was so ashamed, so destroyed by the haranguing, that he committed suicide. What about pop culture and music has changed so significantly that these divas are let off with the wrist-slap embarrassment of a Page Six article? Are the vast majority of teenybopper Americans complacent enough (or ignorant enough) to continue to support these talentless hacks?

When Rolling Stone commented on the Ashlee Simpson snafu, one TV producer commented that only a jamband would perform completely live on television, without the aid of a backing track. Whether you like jambands or not, you cannot doubt their commitment to purity. The Strokes by all accounts sucked when they last played on TV, but at least they went out there and actually played their instruments. And I’m sure many other bands would refuse to use backing tracks as well, at the risk of singing off-key or playing a wrong note. Kim Jakwerth, a representative for Lohan’s label, said that Lohan used backing tracks so “you make the song sound exactly like the record.” That is the problem right there. When I see live music, I want what’s different from the record. I don’t want an impersonal, perfectly mixed, studio effects laden performance; I want something raw and energetic. I want the band to make mistakes; they’re only human, and it’s how the band plays off the mistakes that makes them great. I want to see the artist, on-stage, doing what he or she loves to do simply for the sake of doing it. Art for art’s sake as it were. I don’t want a derivative and formulated product; I want something slightly defective, heartfelt and true. When will the American populace wise up? On that note, I think the website youhavebadtasteinmusic.com should be required viewing for all. Did you know that Evanescence has more Grammy awards then Bob Marley, or the Who?

Those Damn Yellow Ribbons

I'm sure we've all noticed the ever-increasing number of those stick-on yellow ribbons on the back of cars (especially SUVs, oh the irony). While, yes, I do support our troops, I still think these things are crass and meaningless. I've been thinking of making my own with the text running across the ribbon saying "Bring Them Home," but I'm too lazy to actually do it. Anyone want to go in 80-20?

Anyway, this post here by one Jeff McMahan pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject. And to think, I found this through a right-wing blogger who was using it as an example of what is wrong with the "looney left".

Vehicles in New Jersey are covered with decals representing little ribbons inscribed with the legend: “Support Our Troops.” I have done a lot of driving recently and have noticed geographical disparities in the distribution of these symbols. There are fewer in the Midwest and very few at all in the LA area. They are also disproportionately displayed on SUVs and vans, which isn’t surprising given that the owners are disproportionately reliant on the oil supplies that our soldiers are in Iraq to protect (among their other purposes).

What is it exactly that these decals exhort us to do? How can I, or anyone, support the troops themselves? What can we possibly do for them? It seems that the message is really an exhortation to support the war. Why then don’t we ever see bumper stickers urging us more straightforwardly to support the war? It seems dishonest, manipulative, and coercive to assert an equivalence between support for a war and support for the participants in the war. The aim of such an effort is to make it seem that to criticize the war is to criticize our young soldiers and perhaps to increase their peril by weakening the war effort.

I recall that in the late stages of the presidential campaign Bush tried – successfully, it seems – to score points by claiming that to say the war in Iraq was wrong was tantamount to saying that those of our troops who had died there had died in vain. And of course no one wanted to be accused of saying that.

But of course if the war is unjust they have died largely in vain and Bush is the person primarily responsible for that. If they have been sent to die for a misconceived political agenda, that should be a source of remorse, not something to be exploited for further advantage in political debate.

If the war is unjust, as I believe it is, Bush’s remarks exploit the sacrifices of the dead while the ribbon decals further exploit those young soldiers still stationed in Iraq by invoking their peril to stifle opposition to a war in which they will remain embroiled. The decals don’t support our troops but unnecessarily endanger them by seeking to prolong an unjust war.

The Blind Leading the Blind

From the Boston Herald:

Clear Channel Communications says it has picked Fox News Radio to be the primary source of national news for most of its news and talk stations under a five-year agreement. The deal initially covers more than 100 radio stations.

Fox will provide a five-minute top-of-the-hour newscast, a nightly news broadcast, and around-the-clock dedicated national news coverage. In return, Fox News Radio will have access to news produced by Clear Channel's news network.

Fox, a unit of News Corporation, says if all options in the agreement are exercised, its radio service could have more than 500 affiliates by the middle of next year.

Speaking of the Weakening Dollar. . .

This is from Newsmax, the go to site for conservatives and right-wing nuts alike (not saying that the two are synonymous, but his does happen to be a huge site for the right).

BIS data reveals that OPEC states have reduced their dollar deposits from 75 per cent in the third quarter of 2001 to 61.5 per cent today - a fall of of some 13 percentage points.

"Since the third quarter of 2001, oil revenue seems to have been channeled increasingly into euro and other currency deposits," the bank said. "This shift out of U.S. dollars probably reflected to some extent the relative change in interest rates in the United States and the euro area since 1998."

The Financial Times also reported Monday that OPEC nations are also moving away from pricing oil in dollars.

The move away from the dollar could prove catastrophic for U.S. economic interests and bring to an end to more than a half century of dollar supremacy around the globe.

The FT suggested the shift by OPEC was due to "private Middle East investors" who are "worried about the prospect of U.S.-held assets being frozen as part of the war on terror, leading to accelerated dollar-selling after the re-election of President George W. Bush."

Hans Redeker, global head of foreign exchange strategy at the French bank BNP Paribas, blamed the U.S. Patriot Act.

Not That I Feel I Need To Defend Myself. . .

Oh well, I suppose I do. Yeah statistics can lie, so I'll lay them out for you and you tell me what you think.

Thirty-five American citizens died in 15 international terrorist attacks in 2003:

*
Michael Rene Pouliot was killed on 21 January in Kuwait when a gunman fired at his vehicle that had halted at a stoplight.
*
Thomas Janis was murdered by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia terrorists on 13 February in Colombia. Mr. Janis was the pilot of a plane owned by Southern Command that crashed in the jungle. He and a Colombian army officer were wounded in the crash and shot when the terrorists discovered them. Three American passengers on the plane -- Keith Stansell, Marc D. Gonsalves, and Thomas R. Howes -- were kidnapped and are still being held hostage.
*
William Hyde was killed on 4 March in Davao, Philippines, when a bomb hidden in a backpack exploded in a crowded airline terminal. Twenty other persons died, and 146 were wounded.
*
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) denies any connection to the suspected bomber who claimed he was an MILF member.
*
Abigail Elizabeth Litle was killed on 5 March when a suicide bomber boarded a bus in Haifa, Israel, and detonated an explosive device.
*
Rabbi Elnatan Eli Horowitz and his wife Debra Ruth Horowitz were killed on 7 March when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on them as they were eating dinner in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.
*
The deadliest anti-US attack occurred in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 12 May when suicide bombers in boobytrapped cars filled with explosives drove into the Vinnell Jadewel and Al-Hamra housing compounds, killing nine US citizens. Killed at the Vinnell compound were: Obaidah Yusuf Abdullah, Todd Michael Blair, Jason Eric Bentley, James Lee Carpenter II, Herman Diaz, Alex Jackson, Quincy Lee Knox, and Clifford J. Lawson. Mohammed Atef Al Kayyaly was killed at the Al-Hamra compound.
*
Alan Beer and Bertin Joseph Tita were killed on 11 June in a bus bombing near Klal Center on Jaffa Road near Jerusalem.
*
Howard Craig Goldstein was killed in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Ofra on 20 June.
*
Fred Bryant, a civilian contractor, was killed on 5 August in Tikrit, Iraq, when his car ran over an improvised explosive device.
*
Three Americans were among the victims of a deadly truck bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad’s Canal Hotel on 19 August. They were Arthur Helton, Richard Hooper, and Martha Teas. UN Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello was also among the 23 fatalities.
*
Five Americans were killed in Jerusalem on 19 August when a suicide bomber riding on a bus detonated explosives attached to his body. They were Goldy Zarkowsky, Eli Zarkowsky, Mordechai Reinitz, Yessucher Dov Reinitz, and Tehilla Nathansen. Fifteen other persons were killed and 140 wounded in the attack.
*
Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Naava Applebaum were killed on 9 September in a bombing at the Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem.
*
Three Americans were killed on 15 October in Gaza Strip as their US Embassy Tel Aviv motorcade was struck by an apparent roadside blast. They were John Branchizio, Mark T. Parson, and John Martin Linde, Jr. All three were security contractors.
*
Lt. Col. Charles H. Buehring was killed on 26 October in Baghdad during a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the Al-Rasheed Hotel. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz was staying at the hotel at the time of the attack.
*
Two Americans, William Carlson and Christopher Glenn Mueller, were killed in an ambush by armed militants in Shkin, Afghanistan, on 27 October. Both were US Government contract workers.

AND

From the American Red Cross

Every year, an average of 73 people are reported killed by lightning, making it the second most frequent weather-related killer in the United States after floods.

I won't do any messing with the numbers, here they are. Do with them what you wish. Or find different ones that refute the ones in my last post and throw them up here. Don't just instantly dismiss them because you don't like the source. I'm looking for an open dialogue between liberals and conservatives here.

Statistic of the Day

From now on I will be stealing one statistic a day from the geniuses (genii?) over at Harper's. Today's stat:

Ratio of Americans killed by lightning since January 2002 to
those killed by terrorism: 3:2

Trump to America: "Fuck You!" (Part 2 of 2)

As if you didn't hate him enough already, here comes another reason to want to rip that nasty wig off his stupid gorilla face while he's doing the "cobra hand" or whatever the fuck it's called. From The Houston Chronicle:

"I happen to love a weak dollar," Trump said in an interview. "There's nothing better for New York real estate."

Trump, whose developments include Trump Park Avenue condominiums in New York, said people are "flocking" to buy apartments. A stronger dollar or higher interest rates would damp demand for housing, he said. The dollar is at record lows against the euro.

"Every building I'm building in New York is sold out or rented immediately," he said.

Well maybe Trump is right. I mean, he's certainly a successful businessman.

...Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy protection last month after increased competition and a series of unprofitable years left the company struggling to pay interest on $1.8 billion in debt. The company owns four casinos, including the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.

Or not.

Want another reason to hate Trump? He fired Andy, a guy who went to camp with my brother.

Bush to World: "The Weak Dollar is Your Problem, Not Ours"

And Ford to City: "Have I dropped dead yet?"

Wow, not my best. Anyway, this is part one of two-part series on how weak the dollar is and how it will greatly affect my plans to study abroad next fall (I know, I know, worst than death right?). I mean the weak dollar is also helping to put more people below the poverty line than ever before, as well as destroy small businesses (in this country and abroad), but who cares? I want my dollar to mean something when I'm traveling in Europe for a semester! You listening, John Snow?

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told European finance ministers that if other countries want to see the U.S. exchange rate improve, they should retool their own economies.

Apparently not. Good thing Bush is replacing him. I just know Dubya will pick someone who is willing to fight tooth and nail against whatever opposition there may be in order to get the US economy back on track. What do you think, Thomas L. Friedman?

". . .All indications are that this White House is looking for someone even weaker than Snow."

Fantastic.

Run Out and Buy the Next Issue of Hustler, Pronto!

For the articles of course. Though not normally known for their top-notch journalism (except for that article on the Thai drug Yaba I read when I was at an all boys summer camp), I really cannot wait to read the article in their upcoming issue entitled "THE GOP DOES GOTHAM" in which a reporter went undercover to document the sleazier (though no worse) side of the Republican National Convention. Here is a link to an excerpt. And here are some of my own excerpts of the excerpt. Clever.

“Here was their archetype, the sweaty, fat-nosed lobbyist Harold Green, who long ago absorbed the lessons of crony capitalism and understood to his core that the Republican National Convention was about sex, power and nothing else,” she says.

“Harold told me he had a family, and claimed he’d slept with 50 “young” women in the past five years,” she adds later. “(Just the kind of family man championed by his buddy Tom DeLay, the born-again Christian who once said, ‘A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure—to provide stability.’)”

The clamor of parties, booze and buffets, Bartosiewicz says, made her sick – a group that made “a perfect living joke of “family values” (though faithfully attending prayer breakfasts in the morning).”

. . .“At a bowling party for [closeted] California Congressman David Dreier… a blonde in a fishnet body stocking hung from the ceiling on a turquoise scarf, twirling and contorting,” she notes. “Two nights later, at a honky-tonk salute to Texas Congressman Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce… a little girl rode an electric bucking bull in an inflatable farm pen, and 20-foot black cowboy boots decorated in purple and gold stood over the room.”

By the way, that gay Congressman David Dreier? Yeah, he was recently outed by gay activists in response to his tireless campaigning against gay rights. Apparently it was an open secret that Dreier was co-habitating (in multiple ways) with his campaign manager. While I don't condone the forced outing of homosexuals (it is a personal decision, no one else's), I agree that in this situation what's fair is fair. If he wants to make politicize homosexuality he better be prepared for this. Dickhead.

And since we're talking about Hustler and Rep. David Dreier, I think it's only appropriate to throw this up. How often do I get to link to Larry Flynt's blog?

Ok, Ok, Ok,

I know I've been bad about updating lately, but I need to do work in order to stay in school in order to have the education that allows me to understand what is going on in the world. So, this blog will be on semi-hiatus until Friday, December 10th, and then on a slightly more regular posting schedule until the following Friday. After that, I shall return to my normal blogging hours, and I expect you to help me get the readership back up to par. Ok, that's it for now, hopefully I'll get an article or two in later tonight.

-David