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Iraqi Suicides on Rise Due to Stress of Violence
Seeking relief: Medical experts in Iraq have noted a sharp rise in suicides in Iraq — most blamed on the psychological stress caused by unrelenting violence. The report was released today by IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service.
“We see more cases of suicide each month and all evidence shows that the main reason for the suicides has been the stress and pressure caused by the continuing violence,” said Dr. Muhammad Hamza, a specialist in suicide medical investigation at the Ministry of Health.
The Iraq Ministry of Health said that about 20 people have been committing suicide each month since January; 30 others attempted suicide but were saved.Hamza said that he found that 70 percent of suicide victims chose to poison themselves using rat and cockroach poison. Others either shot or hanged themselves.
“Some of them leave letters to their parents and the most common excuse given for their act is that they can no longer bear the violence,” Hamza said.
“This week I had two cases of suicide. One person committed suicide because of the daily threats to his life which he had been receiving, and the other one because her husband had been killed and she became so desperate that she killed herself too,” Hamza added.
Based on statistics from the Baghdad mortuary and hospitals in five regions, the Ministry of Health said that about 20 people have been committing suicide each month since January. Thirty others attempted suicide but were saved.
“The numbers are high when compared to those during Saddam Hussein’s regime when we used to have one or two suicide cases a month,” said Ahmed Fatah, a member of the suicide investigation department at the Ministry of Health.
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Who Let Bush Near the Emailer Thingie?
Al Kamen, in his “In the Loop” Washington Post blog, shares an announcement that could have been written by the president himself.
President Bush’s pre-Christmas visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center caused some unexpected problems, judging from an e-mail alert we received. There were the usual traffic rerouting and parking restrictions, from 8 p.m. on Dec. 21 until 2 p.m. the next day.
The e-mail lists 12 such changes likely to frustrate drivers and includes an apology:
“Traffic will be blocked temporarily around the campus and re-routed if necessary. Sorry for the incontinence during this mission.”
We’re sorry, too.
Pres. Ford Dies at 93
Pres. Gerald Ford died yesterday in the Rancho Mirage section of Palm Springs, California. Ford will be remembered as a caretaker president who quickly ushered the country away from its focus on Republican malfeasance under the leadership of Pres. Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandals.
Ford was the first of only two presidents who came to office by appointment. In 1974, he was the popular House Minority Leader when Nixon nominated him as vice president after Vice Pres. Spiro Agnew stepped down to face tax fraud charges. Ford’s nomination easily won approval in Congress.
The second president to be appointed was, of course, George W. Bush, who was selected by the Supreme Court in 2000.
In his brief term of office (August 1974 to January 1977), Ford was the target of two assassination attempts, both in Sept. 1975:
On the morning of Sept. 5, a young woman named Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a member of the Charles Manson family who had not been involved in Manson-related murders, aimed a borrowed .45-caliber pistol at Ford as he crossed a park near the state Capitol in Sacramento. The gun misfired as a Secret Service agent grabbed her arm.
Less than three weeks later, on Sept. 22, Sara Jane Moore, later diagnosed as psychologically disturbed, fired a shot at Ford from across the street as he emerged from the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. A retired Marine who saw Moore raise the gun struck her arm and deflected the shot. Again, Ford was not injured.
Aside from pardoning Richard Nixon for Watergate-related crimes, which included domestic spying, Gerald Ford also presided over America’s de facto surrender and withdrawal from the Vietnam War.
Florida District 13: Oooh-oh, That Smell!
Two things to take from this post: 1) Bush, et al campaigned way too hard for this loser to lose, and 2) Oh no, you did-int say the voters can’t see how the votes are recorded!
I didn’t think I would still be this appalled, all these weeks later, about the race in which Republican multimillionaire car dealer Vern Buchanan stole the U.S. House Florida District 13 seat. But with the Jetsonesquely named iVotronics’ manufacturer claiming that we, the voting public, have no right to know how (or if) their machines work, I’m outraged all over again.
Of all the races where there could have been problems with electronic voting machines, isn’t it funny that the one where the Bush Administration lobbied most heavily is the one that looks the most tampered with?
By now, everyone knows the story: Buchanan, according to his own internal polling, was behind Democrat Christine Jennings by three to six points going into the election. Jennings voters, upon exiting the booths, immediately reported difficulties with the touch-screen interface in that one race.
Not in dispute is how many voters were affected — about 18,000. The reason why 18,000 voters drove all the way down to the polling place, signed up for a ballot, cast a vote in every other race on that ballot, and then just stopped, is less clear.
Depending on who you listen to, 18,000 random folks lost interest and whiffed off just as they were about to choose between Buchanan and Jennings. Another theory holds that 18,000 people participated in a mass, extemporaneous protest of negative ads which somehow failed to stop them from voting in the governor’s race. That was the one where Republican Charlie Crist ran a month-long ad blitz with an empty chair portraying his opponent.
As we reported just before the election, Buchanan had some heavyweight support. Both Pres. and Mrs. Bush appeared on his behalf, with Laura making multiple visits. America’s mayor, Rudy himself, stumped for Buchanan, and the Vice President even left the secret bunker to make rare, daylight appearances. No doubt his garlic necklace kept him safe.
Yet, of all the races where there could have been problems with electronic voting machines, isn’t it a funny coincidence that the one where the Bush Administration lobbied most heavily is the one that looks the most tampered with?
And with ES&S, the machine’s maker, refusing to divulge how its machines work, things are getting fishier and fishier. Can you imagine the makers of optical scanning machines refusing to tell anyone how it scans ballots? Excuse me? When did Americans make a deal to be kept in the dark about the accuracy of vote counting? Was I out of the room?
It’s time for us all to wake up and smell the tuna — and this one’s been decomposing since Nov. 7.
Christmas Milestone in Iraq: More Dead than 9/11
Merry Christmas from George Bush:
The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began
In a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll as the war continues.
The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began, according to a count by The Associated Press.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,977, four more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Bush on Foreign Affairs in 2000: ‘Let Us Not Dominate Others with Our Power, or Betray Them with Our Indifference’
“The duties of our day are different. But the values of our nation do not change. Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power — or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness. This is the strong heart of America. And this will be the spirit of my administration.”
– Governor George W. Bush, during his presidential campaign in 2000, proving he’ll read aloud but without comprehension whatever his aides put in front of him.
On This Date – December 26
- 2004 – A tsunami generated by a 9.0 earthquake in the Indian Ocean killed 280,000 people.
- 1997 – Lesbian Regan Wolf of Lancaster, South Carolina, was knocked unconscious by three men who brutally beat her, strung her up from her front porch, and painted “Jesus weren’t born for you, faggot.” Despite giving police the identity of the three men, the sheriff’s office took no action. She was attacked more severely six months later.[365Gay.com]
- 1972 – Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88.[NYT]
- 1893 – Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese statesman who led the communist revolution in China and became its first communist leader, was born. He died on September 9, 1976. [NYT]
Hamburger and Milk Are Primary Causes of Global Warming and Water Pollution
In California, the nation’s leading dairy state, 1.7 million cows on 2,100 dairies produce 65 billion pounds of manure a year.
Which contributes more to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, cars or cows?
According to a study released a month ago by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it’s cows, hands down:
the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent — 18 percent — than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
The report projects that global consumption of meat from cows and other farm animals is projected to raise from 465 million tons in the next 40 years.
The report says that methane from ruminants’ digestive system is responsible for 37 percent of methane in the atmosphere. Methane is 23 times more powerful as a contributor to global warming than carbon monoxide.
Livestock now uses 30 percent of the surface, when pastureland and the farmlands used to raise their feed are combined.
Closer to home, the pollution produced by farm factories producing meat and milk are pushing the fragile geography of the state to the brink:
In California, the nation’s leading dairy state, 1.7 million cows on 2,100 dairies produce 65 billion pounds of manure a year.
What can you do? Stop the madness. Quit eating meat. It’s that simple. The earth cannot sustain itself indefinitely as billions of people depend on these farm factories where living, sentient beings are “processed” like inanimate objects.
It is barbaric and it is killing the planet.
GOP Blame Game: Senate Loss Was Liddy Dole’s Fault
Republicans lost because of George Bush’s war, but if they want to blame their poor showing on each other, far be it from me to stand in the line of fire.
After the losses come the long knives. GOP losers in the Senate are blame-gaming Sen. Elizabeth Dole for her failure of leadership as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And campaign insiders are now telling reporters that party leaders lost confidence in Liddy’s leadership early on:
In recent interviews, officials said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as well as Ken Mehlman, the party chairman, set up outside checks on the committee at critical points in the campaign.
As early as last summer, Mehlman signaled he lacked full confidence in Dole’s committee. In an unprecedented move, he set up an independent entity to control more than $12 million that the Republican National Committee spent for television advertising in Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri…
Frist also wanted an outside check. In an unusual move, he hired a polling firm, The Winston Group, shortly before Labor Day to conduct surveys in six important races.
Based on the results, officials said Frist stepped in to help overhaul Bob Corker’s struggling campaign in his home state of Tennessee. Corker ended up beating Democrat Harold Ford Jr. Frist also pushed for a resumption of party-paid advertising in Montana and questioned plans for a multimillion-dollar investment in New Jersey.
And:
Two more weeks of ads in Montana might have made a difference, said one of many Republicans who expressed anger that Dole’s committee aired no television advertisements in Burns’ behalf for between Labor Day and Halloween.
In Virginia, Allen and the Senate campaign committee combined were outspent on television advertising in each of the last five weeks by challenger Jim Webb and the Democratic campaign committee, according to internal GOP figures. The gap exceeded $700,000 in the final seven days.
Two more weeks of ads, huh? Yeah, that probably would have done it for Conrad Burns.
If I were sympathetic to Dole I would point out that she wouldn’t have had to do the impossible in Montana and Virginia if the incumbent candidates hadn’t performed so poorly. It’s a miracle that the races were even close when you factor in Allen’s macaca moment and Burns’ constant and inane spoutings-off.
Republicans lost because of George Bush’s war-on-a-whim in Iraq but if they want to blame their poor showing on each other, far be it from me to stand in the line of fire.
