Friday, October 28, 2005

70% of troops who died in Iraq under 30 years old

Good evening. It's finally the weekend and the good news is Scooter's indicted. Now let's note Democracy Now!

Almost 70% of Iraq Deaths Under Age of 30
MTV has compiled some new statistics on the 2,000 US troops killed in Iraq. Nearly a third were between the ages of 20 and 22, with the highest fatality rate--about 12 percent--being among 21-year-olds. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. casualties are under the age of 30. Forty percent left behind spouses and 30 percent were survived by children.

Am I the only wondering why MT-f-ing-V needed to think of doing that? Don't we have three big networks with news departments and various ones on cable and don't we have major daily papers? Why the heck does MTV have to do that?

The home of TRL is more interested in news than the New York Times?

Good for MTV but I think if I was an editor at a paper right now, I'd be hanging my head in shame.

Padilla Files New Appeal to Supreme Court
Lawyers for Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla--the man accused of plotting to set off a dirty bomb inside the United States--have asked the US Supreme Court to limit the government's power to hold him and other U.S. terror suspects indefinitely and without charges. Padilla, who is a US citizen, has been held for over three years in solitary conferment on a Navy brig. No charges have ever been filed against him and he has never appeared before a judge. Justices refused on a 5-4 vote last year to review Padilla's rights, ruling that he contested his detention in the wrong court. One of Padilla's attorneys, Donna Newman, said the new case asks when and for how long the government can jail people in military prisons. She said the Bush administration's position "is not only can we do it, we can do it forever. In my opinion, that's very problematic and something we should all be very concerned about," she said. Justices will not decide until late this year whether to hear Padilla's appeal.

Is Padilla guilty or innocent? We don't know because they refuse to give him a trial. They just hold him and hold him. What happened to the right to a fair and speedy trial? I checked the map, this is still the United States.

My feeling? J-Ass used Padilla to make a big announcement and there's no case there. Now J-Ass is gone and no one's going to get honest so Padilla could be held for years to come. Make a case or let him go. Or else change the map to read the Ununited State of Bully Boy.

Elaine's doing her commentary at Like Maria Said Paz so check out her thoughts on the two things. Also, sorry to Elaine for announcing that there was a chance she might blog. She got home and unwound by reading one of the books we're going to, hopefully, be discussing at The Third Estate Sunday Review this weekend. Then, right before she goes to bed, she boots up the computer to check her e-mail and people are asking, "Aren't you going to blog?" My bad. Sorry, Elaine.

Now, bad news for Laura. I kept hoping some e-mails would come in as the week wore on with some positive news for Laura. 80 e-mails and all say that Laura needs to stop fooling herself, if the man she's engaged to insists upon her swallowing and can't get over her desire not to, it aint' going away.

The cleanest comment I can put up here came from Jody who wrote, "Would you marry a man who insisted you eat cheese if you're lactose intolerant?"

So the bad news is that everyone weighing in, all 80, feel that this relationship is doomed and you should move on. But you do what you want and what you think is best.

Lastly let's take a moment for Kat Aaron's "Dump the Recruiting Database, Says National Coalition:"

Over 100 organizations have sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calling for the dismantling of a controversial Pentagon database that collects information on high school students. The coalition, a mix of civil liberties, religious, anti-war and parent groups, says that the Joint Advertising and Marketing Research Studies (JAMRS) Recruitment Database is a violation of the 1974 Privacy Act.
The "Dump the Database Coalition," as the groups are known, are also concerned about the broad scope of information collected, the lack of proper notice to the public, and the fact that parties who provided the information are not warned of the military recruiting purpose.
According to a press release from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (a member of the coalition):
The sources of information for the DOD database include the High School Master File and the College Students Files, which are compiled for purposes that are unrelated to an interest in military service or recruitment. The High School Master File is created from information provided by state motor vehicle departments, and the commercial brokers American Student List and Student Marketing Group.


Happy weekend. I'll try to post at least once this weekend. Be sure to check out The Third Estate Sunday Review Sunday. And be sure to check out my buddy Wally's site, The Daily Jot.
I'm going to close with some commentary by C.I. from last night:


The above, sent in by Durham Gal, is from Bob Geary's "Price, Miller call for Iraq exit plan" (The Raleigh-Durham Independent). How do two reps find courage? By the turning tide and by pressure upon them from their constituents. As amazing as the details in the story are, more can happen but only if people make their voices heard. Further down, you'll hear another story of people demanding accountability from a representative. Changes are happening. War hawks who have fallen out with the Bully Boy can put down the movement but it exists and it gets stronger every day. Each time you take action, any action, and tell someone about it, you encourage them. The media hasn't led the peace movement, they haven't even covered it for the most part. The strength has come, as it does with most movements, from the people themselves.
You make the change. You impact the world. For someone to dismiss what happened in DC (or any rallies or events going on outside of DC on Sept. 24th) reveals only their ignorance. They don't want grass roots coming together and sharing. They want foot soliders marching behind them. So they insult the rallies and say that nothing was accomplished.
If by nothing they mean that they weren't celebrated and glorified, that's quite correct. Events are about a group and not an individual. In DC, I saw and heard people who had never been to a rally before show up to register their opposition to the war. That's not "nothing." People gathered together in a very real symbol of direct democracy by the people. Those who insult such actions appear bothered that they couldn't insist we go by their play books.
In DC, Tracey and I interviewed Rhonda and Tammi whom I'd met at a rally in March. In March they had to sneak out to attend. In September, they were there with three of their parents. That's something. That's pretty amazing. And to insult that is to reveal your own narrow mindness and your own inability to appreciate anything that doesn't glorify you.People taking part were taking part because it meant something to them, standing up to the Bully Boy's war meant something to them. Those people didn't go back home and forget they were there. They carried the news back to their own circles and communities and that's how seeds are spread.Something else that carries the seeds is independent media. On Thursdays, we make a point to spotlight indymedia in two entries. To knock the rallies is the same as knocking indymedia. (Oh wait, one person did that. When he said he wasn't interested in the people who agreed with him, when he said that via indymedia, he was insulting indymedia.) Indymedia matters, you matter, people coming together to make a group statement matter.














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