Year: 2006

Christmas Milestone in Iraq: More Dead than 9/11

Trish

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’

Jon Ponder

“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

Jon Ponder
  • 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

Jon Ponder
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.

Godfather of Soul

Pensito Editors



Super bad:

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured “Godfather of Soul,” whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73 [born May 3, 1933].

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

[Frank] Copsidas, the singer’s agent, said Brown’s family was being notified of his death and that the cause was still uncertain. “We really don’t know at this point what he died of,” he said.

GOP Blame Game: Senate Loss Was Liddy Dole’s Fault

Jon Ponder
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.

Mother of All News Dumps: Generals Agree to Bush’s Troop Surge

Jon Ponder
With the clock ticking down on his term in office, George W. Bush is only after one thing: saving his own sorry ass from the dustbin of history.

Operation Double Down: On the Friday before Christmas, when the news industry is essentially on hiatus, the Bush team announced that U.S. generals in Iraq have reversed course and will support the president’s plan for a troop surge.

It is increasingly clear that the surge has been Bush’s plan all along — that he will gamble America’s blood and treasure on a risky scheme to tamp down violence so he can declare a faux victory in Iraq in order to save his sorry-assed legacy from the dustbin of history.

The news dump came on the evening that newly sworn-in Sec. of Defense Bob Gates returned from a quick trip to Iraq to confer with his generals. Did Gates deliver marching orders on the surge to the generals? The connection between his trip and their abrupt reverse course is so obvious that it’s puzzling why — other than a reflexive need to lie about everything — the Bush team insists it’s all a big coincidence. And yet they do:

The U.S. command in Iraq decided to recommend an increase of troops several days ago, prior to meetings in Baghdad this week with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the defense official said.

Looking back, it is apparent that the plan was set early this fall and that neither the results of the elections nor the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group could have ever made any difference.

The reason is simple: George W. Bush will do what is best for George W. Bush. Politically, and personally, the surge is his only option. With the clock running down on his failed presidency — and as has been discussed here, and more comprehensively here — salvaging what he can of his legacy trumps what is best for the troops, the nation and world peace.

The president’s “listening tour” and conferences with Democrats, experts and academics this month were simply for show. If his plans had been to bring the troops home, he would have gotten the good news out before the holidays. Tellingly, he delayed an address to the nation from mid-December until after the holidays. With two-thirds of the country opposing the war, his political handlers figured that a buzz kill by this president two weeks before Christmas risked shrinking his approval rating to Nixonian levels.

The surge strategy has been referred to as the president’s “double down” on Iraq. The reference to raising the stakes in Blackjack perfectly captures the cynicism of the present gambit.

The question is, can anyone — the Democrats or members of his own party who face reelection in 2008, even the American people — do anything to stop him.