Fundamentalism and its Malcontents

“I just think Ubu Bush has the most awesomest values, dude.” - Candy Hyperdermic

Although it can argued that air may escape from various regions of the human body, there are clearly two that predominate. The upper escape, and the lower escape. All air cares about is escaping. It matters not, to the air, from which portal it makes its egress.

Or does it?

This brings us to metaphysics and navel-gazing, which is a paygrade above where we are allowed to go, and so let’s just stay superficial here, and stick to the original premise that air, regardless of its attitude, escapes our bodies. Out the mouth and nose, or out the fundament.

Those whose air escapes mostly out of the fundament, are called fundamentalists. And their flatulences can be heard cracking from AM talk radio, from santorumonious politicians, and from puppets of the plastic pulpit — the wise and holy Phatrobertson and the one they call Foolwell being chief among their head flatulators.

The mephetic phosgenes spiral and dance around their bloviant poverties and create an atmosphere inconducive to rational thought or even irrational exuberances, about which they set themselves up as killjoys, buzzkills and kindergarten teachers.

What is a reasonable hominid to do?

The New Dictation
What makes matters worse is The New Dictation. Dictators have now garnered the support of Churchianity and Big Media, and are now fascizing the bundle into a weapon hard to dodge. And yet bullshit has a way of being smelt. And lowhole flatulences are not of a different class. And this is where blogs come in. We bloggers have an opportunity to cut through the smoke, so to speak, and signal from the proverbial flames. While it lasts. Lord knows, if it weren’t for candidates having blogs, blogs might already be history. Instead, we are making history.

How to Thump a Bible
or
Foolwell’s Guide to Churchianity
In the ’60s there was an influential little book called, “Black, Like Me”, about a young Caucasian who smeared on the brownface, stuffed his pants, and wolla! An African-American! Although I believe the term was Shaft.

Perhaps it is time to put on the hingehead, constrict the lips, infiltrate a few groups, and create a series of “Fundamentalist Like Me” books. Understanding Churchianity from the inside, might be a good place to start. I was brought up in the Christian church, but what I see pullulating from the plastic pulpits is an alien creature.

Seeing Godot Out
Once it is understood what this alien creature, this Godot, is all about,
it will be much easier to see him out.

One Million Years Ago Today
One million years ago today, there was no Jesus, no Mohammed. And yet the world was able to live another million years. Will we exist a million years after?

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) The leader of Romania’s opposition party demanded Tuesday that the results of weekend presidential and parliamentary elections be annulled because of fraud and a new vote be held.

Presidential candidate Traian Basescu, who heads the centrist Justice and Truth Alliance, claimed election authorities gave an extra 160,000 ballots, or 2.5 percent of the votes cast, to his main rival, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase of the ruling Social Democratic Party.

‘’We have no doubt this is fraud … We want the immediate dismissal of election authorities,'’ Basescu said. ‘’The entire electoral process is compromised. The repetition of the election is necessary.'’

Let’s see. Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Romania. So far, since the disputed 2000 election in the US, the score is:

Exported Democracy - 1
Exported Suspected Fraudulent Election - 2

I wonder if there’s a ringer we can call up from the Bush leagues.

Carlos Gutierrez? THAT’s who President Bush has nominated to replace long-time Texas friend Don Evans as Secretary of Commerce. Gutierrez, of course, is the CEO of giant breakfast cereal maker Kellogg’s (of Battle Creek, MI).

Gutierrez seems an illogical choice at many levels. He was not a big Bush contributor, nor a “bundler” of contributions (the “Pioneers”). He was not a loyal White House staffer, of course. And mostly, his business career appears to be, well, successful. When measured against the likes of a Condi Rice or a George W. Bush, this would seem anomalous.

But then, just as the discussion turns to the possible sacking of Treasury Secretary Snow (Laura Bush promises shakeups, and Snow “has not been guaranteed job security”), it seems obvious why Bush would want to bring in a man like Gutierrez: branding and marketing. Reality just won’t cut it anymore: who better to sell our non-existent national industrial policy, or the virtues of our moribund manufacturing sector, or the sound policy value of more tax cuts while we already have record deficits than a marketing man. (Don’t worry; Don Rumsfeld’s job is safe, as anything else might be an admission of imperfection, and hence, right out.)

We’ll see. Gutierrez will have a tough job– if he actually believes that success in it involves any kind of… success. The greatest President since Herbert Hoover may well have just appointed the greatest Commerce Secretary since… Herbert Hoover.

After originally posting a links page with about 1,000 blogs mostly defined by states (see the ‘States’ tab at the top of the blog), I was inundated with over 500 requests for addition, which I thought I could get up before November.

Both the intensity of coverage of the debates and campaign coverage interfered with my best intentions. Additionally, requests kept pouring in. So I keep chipping away at it.

Ultimately the new page has required major changes. Not only will it include categories not seen before (such as blogs written from or about non-USA locations), but it means revamping the color schemes to reflect new shifts in voter support from the 2004 election.

People inquire occasionally, and so far I’ve been consistent …. at missing every deadline I set. But I’m so much closer now that I really think I can deliver it this week.

My apologies for the delays. There are so many many excellent ones in the additions that I regularly get delayed, just reading them. Wish me luck!

I don’t think anyone’s written a better election analysis than Bill Mantis.

Several commenters in an American Street post from last week have mentioned that America itself is in need of therapy. That actually isn’t far off-base. If you look at what’s going on everywhere, it becomes apparent that the entire world is desperate for real healing.

I’ve read something recently for a class that echoes a great deal of what’s happened in the past few years, i internationally, nationally and locally. Keeping in mind that it was in a book published in 1997, it’s amazingly prescient.

an excerpt:

Read the rest of this entry »

Garry Wills: “The word to describe his politics is really underdogism.” Sidney Blumenthal calls him “a chronicler of the unheard voices of important people nobody knew were important.”

“I’ll end with a story. I’m taking this train, changing planes, at Atlanta airport, going from one concourse to another, and there’s silence in the train. The doors are about to close. A robotic voice, very deliberate, says: ‘Concourse one: Dallas, Fort Worth. Concourse two. Some other place.’ But mechanical. Total silence. And just as the doors start to close this young couple rush in, hold the doors, they open again. And the voice doesn’t miss a beat. ‘Because of late entry we are delayed 30 seconds.’ And everybody’s now looking at the young couple. And this couple is shrinking, you know. Now I’m there, and I’ve had a couple of martinis. And so I holler out, I put my hands to my mouth, and I say ‘George Orwell, your time has come and gone.’ And no one laughed. Dead silence. They just looked at me. And I’m saying to myself, no more sound of the human voice. But just then there’s a baby sitting down there, a couple of feet away. She’s a Mexican, and I lean towards the baby - and I hold my hand over my mouth because my breath is 100 per cent proof, and I say to the baby: ‘Sir or madam, what is your opinion of the human species?’ And of course the baby starts giggling. And when I hear the baby giggling, I say, ‘Thank God. A human voice. There’s still hope.’ Hope dies last. There, I think we got it.”

At 92, he’s just finishing up a book about music, especially jazz. Then he plans to write the book everyone should be required to read: his autobiography.

About the election, he was ‘angry as hell about the result of the presidential election - “We’re at a moment of unashamenedness. I call it the evil of banality.” ‘

He’ll always be The New Deal and The Real Deal to me, and I recommend the books and audio recordings of Studs Terkel to everyone. He is America at its most indefatiguable.

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” — L.P. Hartley

I love browsing around in the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division online catalog. There’s no end of funky stuff there, including the World War I poster at right. Who knew Lady Liberty was such a babe? I’ve noticed that several war poster artists painted the Lady in diaphanous, barely-there tunics, waving flags and/or swords as she leads us to victory. You can see another one, different artist, on my web site, here.

These days the sight of a breast (or Nicollette Sheridan’s back, for pity’s sake) sends us into a collective trauma. And can we say, John Ashcroft? Our ancesters were made of sterner stuff. I have seen (sorry I don’t have an example ready to upload) 19th-century posters in which Liberty’s boobs burst proudly out of her dress, even when most of the rest of her was covered. Our Government used to print and distribute this stuff without a second thought, and no one seemed to complain at the time.

As Frank Rich recently pointed out, a lot of our hyperventilating over public indecency is naught but hot air and hypocrisy. Still, after last winter’s Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, I wanted to drive around the country shaking people. It’s just a boob. It won’t hurt you. Judging by the old posters, fear of boobs (mammaphobia?) is a new phenomenon.

My point, other than the fact that I just love that poster, is that the past can be surprising. Read the rest of this entry »

Molly decries PTSD, healthcare flaws, the US practicing torture-by-proxy, and details the environmental damages of the Overspending Bill.

Derrick Jackson details the Overspending Bill while decrying the cuts in Pell grants.

Helen Thomas says Dems need to stand tough, not slide rightward into invisibility.

Robyn Blumner agrees with Helen, and refers to George Lakoff, saying we have the values but need to frame them better.

And national GLBT leaders are thinking how to frame things better, too:

Instead of fighting high-profile wars in courtrooms and capitols, many are looking to wage gentler campaigns in church basements, town halls, front porches and local boardrooms, borrowing from the successful tactics of the Christian right in the 1980s.

The Nov. 2 elections showed that in the Midwest, the bold legal strategies of Massachusetts and San Francisco simply do not fly �€” in fact, they inflame. Across the rolling landscape of central states, such tactics made straight voters fearful and many gay and lesbian residents uneasy.

�€œNot understanding that all politics is local, the national advocacy groups learned a huge lesson,�€� said Jamie Rich, former director of the Lesbian & Gay Community Center of Greater Kansas City.

�€œThey can’t roll into this part of the country and talk to us like we’re hicks in the sticks,�€� he said. �€œWe do have to be patient if people don’t understand. �€� We have to build long-term visibility in our communities.�€�

Of course, some Christians twist the frames to suit their own biases, as this woman at Bible.com explaining God’s word on war:

Read the rest of this entry »

He kissed her, forced her lips open with his mouth. She could taste the whiskey he had been drinking, feel his whiskers and the scab on his face. A wave of revulsion swept over her, and she pushed him away. As he fell back, the white bulldog moved toward her, his growl becoming louder.

“Ah, feisty, ain’t she, Luper?” Wilson stroked the dog. “Well, sometimes that’s the kind’s the most fun.” He turned and reached for the whiskey bottle and saw Baby holding it. “gaddammit! Give me that!” He grabbed the bottle, tipped it up, and took a very long drink. “I want you and the kids to get outta here,” he said to Baby.

“But, Zack–”

“I said get out! Take ‘em over to the soddie. Take ‘em someplace. I don’t care where.”

“Lemme just get a few things together for ‘em. It’ll take just a minute.”

Wilson sat down at the table, emptied the whiskey bottle, and stared at Sophie. She was terrified, felt sick with apprehension. She had no weapons, no hope of help. Paul was the only one who knew where she was, and there was no reason for him to come after her. What could she do? She couldn’t give in to Wilson. She couldn’t. But if she fought him, what might he do. He was stronger than she–and there was that dog. Every time she moved, the dog growled.

“Goddamnit, Baby! What’s takin’ you so long?” Wilson demanded.

“Just about ready, Zack, just about ready.” Baby stood in the doorway with the two children. She would not look at Sophie. “Zack,” Baby said, “she’s not his sweetheart.”

“Get your ass outta here!”

“You can’t do this, Zack, you just can’t. They’ll come after you. You’d know that if you weren’t drunk.”

He made a threatening move toward her, and she ran, jerking the blond-haired child off her feet.

As Wilson moved toward Sophie, she stood, but the dog growled menacingly, and she dared move no farther. Wilson grabbed her by the shoulders and put his face on her neck. He mumbled words she couldn’t understand.

She tried to steel herself, control her revulsion. All her instincts demanded that she fight him, that she kick, bite, anything to push him away, to get his hands off her. But her mind was moving rapidly. What would happen if she did? It wouldn’t change the outcome, merely delay it and bring her more pain and injury. She tried drawing within herself to a place he couldn’t touch, to a place from which she could watch him and hate him with a pure and unalloyed hatred.

He kissed her then, full on the lips as before, and he began to fumble with the buttons on the front of her dress. His breath, the whiskers scratching her face, his filthy hands on her flesh–suddenly…..

Fledgling writers are always advised to ‘write what you know,’ so it’s pretty interesting trying to determine what and who Lynne Cheney knew here, in this excerpt.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, former Congressman Tony Hall will be in Dayton, Ohio, with a Christian charity:

Dayton, Ohio. (Sept. 29, 2004) �€“ Tony Hall, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Agencies, has joined with international hunger relief organization Feed The Children to help children and families in the Dayton area today. Following a brief press conference at 10 a.m., two semi-tractor trailer truckloads of food and personal care boxes, as well as shelf-stable liquid milk, will be distributed to approximately 440 families at the Dayton Life Enrichment Center, 515 Irwin St. in Dayton.

Larry Jones, president and founder of Feed The Children also will be on hand for the press conference and distribution, as will Dayton Mayo Rhine McLin, State Rep. Fred Strahorn and a representative from U.S. Senator Mike DeWine’s office.

“For all of my travels to crisis areas around the globe, I always remember that there are people in need in my hometown. I will never forget that charity begins at home,�€� said Tony P. Hall, US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture and former Congressman. �€œSo when Larry Jones came to Rome for a meeting with the World Food Program, I asked if he would come back to Dayton with me for another food distribution. Here we are, demonstrating that there are still people whose yes means yes and who keep their word.�€�

Hall is the sort of upstanding guy that I think of when I consider Ohio. He represents the moral values I’ve supported all my adult life, privately and politically.

Read the rest of this entry »

And Moses came down from the mountain and said “Oy! Verily, God has given me these tablets with 10 commands you must follow to be a good Jew.”

And the commands were:

1) I’m the only God. Don’t worship any other as higher, buddy, because I’m it. However, while I’m busy, all those beggars on your TV screen, seeking your money while claiming to speak my mind? Believe them. I know some of them seem pretty hateful and greedy and demanding you to do things that I never detailed, but I made them that way just to show you that I work in mysterious ways. I can make turds talk, so when you see a talking turd, you better believe it’s me and that everything’s cool.

2) Quit with the sculptures and symbols and artistic renderings of things in Heaven and Hell. If you worship those icons and images, I get jealous and I’ll make you suffer, your kids suffer, your grandkids suffer, and your great grandkids suffer. But if you just focus on me and give me love, why, I’ll be merciful to y’all.

3) Don’t take my name in vain. The last time we discussed this, my name was unpronounceable, so I know it’s hard to grasp what I mean here. The best bet is just not to call on me for silly reasons. Like, here’s a hint: I don’t really care whether USC, Oklahoma, the Red Sox or the Cardinals win the next game. None of that has any relevance to your eternal life or how to live in the temporary one you’re dealing with right now.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a Reuters’ story. I note that, over the months I’ve been following this story, the tone has moved from concerned but detached to downright alarmed. By the way, I have yet to see a story on this in the major US dailies. Americans are being kept in the dark about this threat.

Flu Pandemic Inevitable, Plans Needed Urgently -WHO

Fri Nov 26, 7:24 AM ET

By Vissuta Pothong

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Every country in the world must come up urgently with a plan to deal with an inevitable influenza pandemic likely to be triggered by the bird flu virus that hit Asia this year, a top global health expert said on Friday.

“I believe we are closer now to a pandemic than at any time in recent years,” said Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Region of the World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO).

“No country will be spared once it becomes a pandemic,” he told a news conference.

“History has taught us that influenza pandemics occur on a regular cycle, with one appearing every 20 to 30 years. On this basis, the next one is overdue,” he said at a conference of 13 Asian health ministers trying to figure out how to avoid one.

“We believe a pandemic is highly likely unless intensified international efforts are made to take control of the situation,” he said of the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has defied efforts to eradicate it in several Asian countries, including Thailand.

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 killed upwards of 20 million people and WHO experts say the next could infect up to 30 percent of the world’s more than 6 billion people and kill up to 7 million of them.

Omi said that to stave that off, the world would have to cooperate closely by sharing information promptly and openly on the virus — such as how it spreads, why it hits children more easily than adults and how quickly it is mutating.

This is very sloppy reporting. First, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed 50 million people. Read the rest of this entry »

No, the Valerie Plame affair isn’t over. Bush, Rove & Co. did what they needed to do: they stalled the investigation until after the election. But that doesn’t mean that someone won’t go to jail after all.

Susan Schmidt’s story in today’s Washington Post doesn’t really tell us much, except that the invesitgation is still ticking along. The prosecution side seems not to be leaking, so the reporter’s only sources are some of the grand jury witnesses and the lawyers for some of the potential defendants.

If they’re to be believed, Fitzgerald’s team is focusing on the question of who in the government might have been talking about Plame before the Novak story broke. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act doesn’t cover previously revealed information. The Espionage Act might, but the story gives no hint that any Espionage Act prosecutions are planned.

One question I hope Fitzgerald’s staff is asking: Who told Clifford May, a GOP flack who’s been masquerading as journalist at NRO, about Valerie Plame’s identity as a covert CIA officer weeks before Novak published his story? May said in print that some former offical had told him that, back when the Bushies’ line was that Plame’s identity wasn’t actually a secret in the first place. I hope he’s been given an opportunity to explain in detail to the Grand Jury.

thanks to understandinglife’s dkos diary, we find this oped piece in the baltimore sun (you’ll need to register) by professor ian h. solomon of yale law school, stressing what we ourselves have been saying: ensuring a fair vote count is not just for kerry’s sake, but democracy’s sake.

the legitimacy of our democratic process is an issue more important than mr. kerry’s future or the results of 2004. that legitimacy has been called into question repeatedly over the past few weeks, and doubts will linger as long as credible indications of error, negligence, disenfranchisement and fraud are not addressed�€�

we experienced a troubling number of memory card failures where i was based in volusia county, for example, and we tried to minimize the disruption to voters even though data security was compromised. in franklin county, ohio, a machine error resulted in an extra 4,000 votes for president bush. in guilford county, n.c., a machine error cost mr. kerry 22,000 votes. similar problems were experienced in nebraska, indiana and other states. these glitches that we know about have reportedly been fixed, though a re-vote is necessary in a different north carolina county.

disturbingly, several web sites have demonstrated the ease of hacking into the accuvote ts machines made by diebold election systems, the company that for $2.6 million recently settled a lawsuit by california over voting machine problems. another major manufacturer of electronic voting machines, election systems & software, has also been subject to criticism for machine breakdowns and vulnerability. there is no evidence of fraud, but neither manufacturer has assuaged widespread concerns about inappropriate partisanship and unreliability�€�

Read the rest of this entry »

with apologies to both roger waters and mad kane.

we don’t need no explanation
we don’t need no cash control
no lame excuse instead of money
pink floyd leave our cash alone!
hey! pink floyd! leave our residuals alone!
all in all it’s just another kick in the balls

The Ukranian Parliament Saturday declared last Sunday�€™s vote giving a plurality to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich illegitimate. While there were few details immediately available about the suspicions leading to the unusual call, the American Street has discovered that the fault may lie in the voting machines flown in as a gift from the people of Ohio. �€œThe fact that George W. Bush polled more than twice the vote of the Ukrainian candidates combined raised some concerns among election observers here,�€� a Member of Parliament conceded.
While the Bush vote was immediately tossed out on constitutional grounds, (Bush is not currently a citizen of the Ukraine) the large number of votes generated by the Diebold machines for the recently re-elected President of the United States did raise some speculation that accuracy in the machine�€™s tallies might come under question. Even after Bush generously donated his large vote to Yanukovich, �€“ a close friend of his �€œsoul mate�€� Vladimir Putin �€“ supporters of Viktor Yushchenko said Bush should �€œgo back to Ohio�€� and noted that the Ukraine and most of the former Soviet Union are no longer �€œRed�€� states.
Yushchenko supporters said they became suspicious when the �€œfair and balanced�€� Ukraine news agency called Yanukovich the winner of the election just hours after the new touch-screen voting machines were carried off Air Force Two in Kiev, after a direct flight from Columbus, Ohio on November 3. �€œIt reminds me of a time when we could vote for Mr. Stalin, or vote for an opportunity to join others who didn�€™t care for Mr. Stalin,�€� one Ukrainian old-timer recalled.
Ukrainian citizens are now looking forward to the action expected Monday by the Supreme Court. Bush has already told Yanukovich that he will send a �€œfully experienced�€� team of lawyers to help the candidate deal with the election dispute. Bush also organized a new Ukrainian organization for the expected revote called �€œswift banker veterans for truth�€� to question Yushchenko�€™s public profile as an economic hero in the time of the Ukraine�€™s emergence from the former Soviet Union.
Bush says he has �€œfull confidence�€� that the Ukrainian Supreme Court will make the right choice, as did the US Supreme Court. Bush says he is looking forward to working with either Viktor Yuschenko or Viktor Yanukovich. �€œWe have an old saying in Texas, �€œBush says. �€œ Fool me once, and we have a recount. Fool me twice, and to the Viktor belong the spoils.�€�

Via Athenae: “Man Says Fish Stick Bears Face of Jesus“.

I’m glad someone can bear it, because, frankly, I’m getting sick and tired of seeing the dude’s face.

After all, he’s clearly been getting make-up tips from Michael ‘Whiteness’ Jackson. Come to think of it, he’s always saying stuff catering to the kids like Jackson, too. I have a hunch he can do a better moonwalk than Jackson ever dreamed of, though.

I wonder why our deities and saintly types insist upon appearing on products that are nearly food. I mean, if you were Lord of the Universe, wouldn’t you aim for tributes higher than Velveeta and white bread, or flakes of reassembled rectangular fish? Why risk musicals titled Jesus Trout, SuperGar?

Clearly, there are mysteries beyond our mortal imagination. Like, would you believe someone would actually pay $28,000 for an old sandwich? Entrepreneurs of the future, take note: everything can be outsourced except the stupidity of consumers.

And now, since we’re in another Crusades, pitting the technological might of nuclear Rome against the hordes of heathens armed with sticks and stones, doesn’t universal justice require the face of Allah in something semi-edible? Like maybe frozen in your favorite tofu-flavored energy bar?

Of course, my worst fear is that some friend will drop by to visit the Keepers of the Holy Processed Food Knick-Knacks and, mistaking the icons for horse douvers, proceed to eat the faces of the Gods and their mothers. Old fish and old cheese processed intestinally, coupled with the anger of the Gods so rudely dispatched… I guarantee you, the threatened tribulations of Scripture can’t come close to the potential ruin should we face the Methane Revenge of the Gods. All of which was foretold to me on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where Adam’s about to pull God’s finger.

If that’s what works for the rest of you, you can have the miracles of the loaves and fishes and approximate cheese. I’m gonna stand over on this side of the universe, in the water-into-wine line, waiting for a less flatulent moment of Rapture, while practicing my cherubim and seraphim pickup lines. (”When’s the last time you had some Spirit in that Holey?” and “You must be an angel with tits like that.”)

[Editor’s note: if you were seeking the enlightenment of high brow humor, we apologize for seating you in the wrong section. Clearly this one belongs in the Methane pew.]

I’ll tell ya though, to me that Blessed Virgin Cheese Sandwich looked more like Clara Bow than Mary Mother of God. I’m not sure what the divine meaning of that is, or who has the Holy Negatives to tell us what the Dead Heroes of the Heavens really looked like to begin with. I always liked the God that looked like a flaming Bush. It made me think of The Birdcage, with the Texas Twelve-stepper stepping in for Nathan Lane, just before the Holy Methane Blowtorch is applied.

Man, thish wine ish really good. Can I get you a glash?

[Editor’s note: Yeah, we thought this post looked promising at the start, too. It went downhill faster than frozen fish on a godhead sled, didn’t it?]

All of the news has been so dark for the last week that it is starting to get to me; I need to start paying attention to some other things. In that interest, I just picked up The Economist’s new “books of the year” list. I’ll be bookshopping for Christmas presents this week (and looking for audiobooks for myself, or maybe getting one of those iPod thingies so I can listen to downloaded books, I’m rarely able to sit on my subway commute, so reading by listening is a better bet.) Take a look at the list, and add your favorite recommendations from the last 12 months.

I’m nearly finished with Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, which is probably my best book read this year.

Here’s The Economist’s list
.

Some picks from me:

Read the rest of this entry »

Okrent Looking Into ‘NY Times’ Calling Civilian Casualties ‘Unconfirmed’ or ‘Inflated’

While debate continues over the death toll in this month�€™s assault on Fallujah, Daniel Okrent, public editor at The New York Times, is trying to find out why the paper, in its news pages, continues to claim that civilian casualties were �€œunconfirmed�€� or �€œinflated�€� in last April�€™s aborted offensive.

“I have a response from the foreign desk,” he told E&P. “I’m now kind of examining their response. I’m not ready to say anything conclusive.”

and, why is he looking into it?

On Oct. 26, however, the independent British-based group Iraq Body Count put the civilian casualty figure for April 2004 in Fallujah at around 600, partly based on “detailed and exhaustive analysis” of nearly 300 contemporary news reports. According to the group’s Web site, iraqbodycount.net, doctors and eyewitnesses reported that at least 308 women and children had been killed.

The issue resurfaced this month when, on the first day of the Fallujah offensive, U.S. and Iraqi troops’ primary objective was to secure Fallujah General Hospital, which was labeled a “propaganda” machine against the United States and its allies and a refuge for insurgents. Troops burst in and tied up patients and doctors to make sure the compound was secure. The military charged that the civilian toll from the earlier offensive had been grossly inflated.

The group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) subsequently noted on its Web site that the Times had referred to “unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties” in three articles, printed Nov. 8, Nov. 9, and Nov. 15, and asked readers to write to Okrent.

what’s also interesting is that the headline of this article on Thursday read “Why Does ‘New York Times’ Call Casualty Count from April Fallujah Battle ‘Unconfirmed’ or ‘Inflated’?”

it’ll be interesting to see what, if any, “official” casualty numbers come out of Fallujah for this latest engagement.

(Posted for Julia, who’s on vacation)

They’re just vicious sociopaths. They’re not, you know, bigots.

In their first public interviews since attacking gay college student Matthew Shepard, his killers said they were motivated not by homophobia but by the prospect of robbery to fuel a methamphetamine binge.

“He was pretty well-dressed, had a wallet full of money,” Aaron McKinney said of meeting Shepard at a Laramie bar in October 1998. “All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him. . . . Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

The interviews will air Friday on ABC News’s “20/20.”

The robbery got out of hand, said McKinney and his friend Russell Henderson, and Shepard was beaten into a coma while tied to a fence outside the small college town. The student, 21, died five days later.

The crime drew condemnation from President Bill Clinton, Congress and the international community, and it spurred debate on the effectiveness of “hate crime” laws. McKinney and Henderson, both 27 now, are serving life sentences for murder.

McKinney said he killed Shepard because he was strung out on drugs, not because Shepard was gay. Henderson agreed, saying, “It’s not because me and Aaron had anything against gays or any of that.”

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been much ado about blogs, advertising, and selling out to ‘da Man.’ But I think it’s totally bogus. Or mostly so.

True, if you ran a hot site, agreed to run ads from everyone and proclaimed yourself neutral in the decision to be completely evenhanded, I’d probably consider that a little too convenient, reject any merry little ‘freedom of speech’ claim you mustered, and ask to see your blood test results on the first date.

Read the rest of this entry »