By Norwood
US deaths rise in wake of Saddam capture
US combat deaths in Iraq have risen sharply during January despite a drop in the number of attacks and the capture of former dictator Saddam Hussein over a month ago.
As of Thursday, 33 American soldiers and one civilian had been killed by hostile fire during the month. That compares with 24 US combat deaths in December, and a total of 32 coalition combat deaths.
The figures appear to show that the security situation in Iraq is not improving, contrary to earlier claims from the US military and politicians.
At Least 12 Killed in Bombings in Northern Iraq
A car bomb targeting a police station in Iraq’s third largest city killed nine people and injured 45 others Saturday, while three American soldiers died when a roadside bomb ripped through their convoy near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Witnesses in Mosul, Iraq’s major northern city, said what appeared to be a suicide attacker drove through a security barricade in front of the police station before blowing up his vehicle outside the building. Officials confirmed a car bomb but wouldn’t say if it was a suicide attack.
In Kirkuk, a homemade bomb exploded as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed by about 25 miles southwest of the city Saturday, killing the three soldiers, the U.S. military said. The deaths raised to 522 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict.
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By Norwood
Washington Post
A record-high 375,000 jobless workers will exhaust their unemployment insurance this month and an estimated 2 million workers will find themselves in the same predicament during the first half of the year, according to an analysis of Labor Department statistics by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
……
The jobless recovery has become an issue in this presidential election year, and the report shows the jobless benefits will run out for large numbers of workers in several key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.
While the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in December, down from 6.3 percent in June, businesses added only 1,000 jobs that month. The country has lost more than 2.8 million manufacturing jobs in a steady erosion over the past 41 months.
Congress voted in 2002 to give unemployed workers an additional 13 weeks of benefits and extended the program twice. But it expired just before Christmas. Congressional Republicans said another extension wasn’t necessary because the economy was gaining strength and job growth was near at hand.
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By Norwood
Did you notice that W just proposed increasing funding for the NEA? If he actually comes through with any money, expect more of this:
The play praises patriotism, but the judges only saw teens cutting up an American flag.
It was enough to disqualify Archbishop McCarthy High students from a competition early this week for their performance of The Children’s Story. In the play, first published in 1963 by Shogun author James Clavell, third-graders in a classroom in a United States that has been defeated by a powerful enemy, presumably Communist, cut the flag into pieces. Their new teacher tells them if the flag is so good, everyone should get a piece and tells them to hand out the shreds. It’s a message about the dangers of mindless political indoctrination.
“The play is actually pro-American,” said Erin Fragetta, 15, a sophomore at the southwest Broward County school who worked on the production. “It was intended to be an anti-communist message, and the judges just turned it around on us.”
Zac Ensign, who acted in the play, added: “People just didn’t look at what we were doing for what it was. We never intended for this to be a malicious gesture.”
McArthur was competing against 10 troupes from Broward public and private high schools at the Florida State Thespians District 13 one-act play competition at Nova High on Monday and Tuesday.
After receiving complaints about the flag cutting, co-chairman Melody Wicht, who teaches drama at Pembroke Pines Charter High, disqualified the McArthur team.
“Some people came to me after the play and complained about the performance,” Wicht said. “So I looked into it.”
Wicht said she based her decision on Florida Statute 876.52, which says “Whoever publicly mutilates, defaces or tramples with intent to insult any flag … of the United States shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
“I tried to stay as objective as possible as they performed,” Wicht said. “My problem was that they took an American flag off the flagpole and cut it into pieces. They were disqualified based on Florida law.”
Jim Usher, from American Heritage School in Plantation, one of the three judges, said while he was “grossly offended” by the flag cutting, he didn’t base his rating of the play on it. He gave the play a fair rating — the lowest — based on overall performance, he said.
Wicht said until she hears otherwise, the disqualification will stand.
But constitutional lawyers and theater buffs say Wicht may have gone too far.
“For 10 years it’s been clear that these flag desecration statutes are unconstitutional,” said Bruce Rogow, a Nova Southeastern University law professor specializing in constitutional law and First Amendment rights. “What’s especially ironic is that this is a pro-democracy, anti-totalitarianism play, and yet they’re punished for using the flag as an example of what shouldn’t be done in a totalitarian society.”
Rogow cited the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down such a statute in the case of Texas vs. Johnson.
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the court’s opinion that flag desecration is the ultimate expression of disagreement in a democracy
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By Norwood
Haven’t been posting a whole lot this week, what with fundraising and starting fires, so let’s catch up a litlle:
Welfare daddies cash in: Centro Ybor bailout begins
Wannabe welfare daddies vow to come back: Civitas hoping that Tampa Housing Authority does not get its grant so that Civitas can move forward with Ed Turanchik’s plan to take over the world.
Jeb! hates democracy, appoints new Judge, nullifying scheduled election.
Legislators lie
Republican program to privatize schools leads to theft and graft.
Struhs takes job with environmental rapist.
That should keep everyone busy for awhile. More later.
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By Norwood
NYT
Electronic voting machines made by Diebold Inc. that are widely used in several states have such poor computer security and physical security that an election could be disrupted or even stolen by corrupt insiders or determined outsiders, according to a new report presented today to Maryland state legislators.
Authors of the report - the first hands-on attempt to hack Diebold voting machine systems under conditions found during an election — were careful to say that the machines, if not hacked, count votes correctly, and that issues discovered in the “red team” exercise could be addressed in a preliminary way in time for the state’s primaries in March.
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“I don’t want to beat people up,” said Michael Wertheimer, the security expert who ran the attack team for RABA Technologies, a consulting firm in Columbia, Md. “I want to get an election that people can feel good about in March.”
Further steps could be taken to ensure a safe general election in November, the report concludes. But ultimately, the report says, Diebold election software has to be rewritten to meet industry security standards and called for limited use of paper receipts to help verify voting.
……
Maryland has bought more than $55 million worth of the machines. Georgia has chosen Diebold machines for elections statewide, and they have been chosen by populous counties in California and Ohio, among other states.
The authors of the report said that they had expected a higher degree of security in the design of the machines. “We were genuinely surprised at the basic level of the exploits” that allowed tampering, said Mr. Wertheimer, a former security expert for the National Security Agency.
William A. Arbaugh, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland and a member of the Red Team exercise, said, “I can say with confidence that nobody looked at the system with an eye to security who understands security.”
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By Norwood
Pants on fire-mobile comes to Tampa!
Contact Information:
Norwood Orrick
813-226-2550
norwood@blogwood.com
BlogWood: Norwood’s Fair and Balanced Nattering (local updates)
www.PantsOnFire.net (general info)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 29, 2004
Giant Statue of President George W. Bush with Pants Ablaze will be towed through Tampa
Tampa, FL - Local activists will tow a giant statue of President George W Bush with his pants aflame throughout the Tampa Bay area beginning Monday, February 8.
Sponsored by True Majority Action, the George W Bush Pants on Fire-mobile is in the midst of a cross country tour and will be visiting the Tampa area for about a week. The statue will be parked during the day in the 2900 block of N Tampa St., just north of downtown, and at night it will be cruising Tampa area streets.
The 12 foot high statue is mounted on a flatbed trailer and pulled by a Ford Crown Victoria with diplomatic style American flags waving from the fenders. The flames actually are artificial fire that looks very realistic. George is outlined in electroluminescent wire for a very spooky effect (and so he’s visible at night).
The construction of the statue and the purchase of its tow vehicle were made possible by the members of True Majority Action.
####
For more information:
Tampa Contact:
Norwood Orrick
813-226-2550
On the web:
Local updates: BlogWood: Norwood’s Fair and Balanced Nattering
National: www.PantsOnFire.net
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By Norwood
Just got back form WMNF. MorningWood had a modest goal of $500. I raised over $1250 $1325!
Thank You.
Thank You.
Thank You.
Oh, and you… Thanks!
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By Norwood
Help!
Marathon is here. Winter Minithon, actually, but pretty much the same thing as our twice a year fundraisers which we call marathon.
For those of you who are scratching your heads right now and saying “huh?”, we’re discussing 70,000 watt Community Radio WMNF 88.5fm, Tampa.
Community Radio, as in no commercials, no Clear Channel, totally independent, volunteer programmers who decide what to play and when to play it. Cutting edge public affairs programming, eclectic music offerings, news and events from around Tampa Bay… wait… I’m starting to sound like a commercial.
Anyway, we need your support. Call 813-239-9663 in the next coupla days, or pledge through the web site, and let us know that you’re out there and loving what we’re doing.
And now for a personal pitch:
I do a show called MorningWood every Tuesday from 4-6am. There are approximately 2 people awake and listening to the radio during those early morning hours, so I can use all the calls and “absentee” pledges that I can muster during my show. See, each individual programmer and show is judged on their fundraising abilities. This is not the sole criteria for making programming decisions, but it’s right up there.
I am in the process of applying for an available afternoon slot. Afternoon, as in during the daylight hours. As in more than 2 people awake and listening. You get the idea. Anyway, the more pledges I can muster, the better my chances of beating out the numerous other qualified candidates.
So, PLEASE pledge to MorningWood. And, yes, I AM offering “Absentee” pledges this season. If you are not awake during my show, just email or call 813-226-2550 sometime before midnight tonight and I will take your pledge for Community Radio WMNF and MorningWood.
Thank You!
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By Norwood
5 G.I.
Insurgents in Iraq killed or wounded scores of people in several attacks on Saturday, including two American soldiers who were killed by a makeshift bomb on a road near Falluja and three more who died in a truck-bomb attack in Khaldiya, military officials said.
Another bomb went off near the city council building in Samarra, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 33 badly enough that they required treatment at the local hospital, the officials said. In that attack, which occurred just after American soldiers passed the spot in their vehicles, three soldiers were hurt.
And in Mosul, four Iraqis in the local security forces were wounded in a spate of five drive-by shootings, one of which erupted into a brief firefight, the military said.
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By Norwood
NYT
David Kay, who led the American effort to find banned weapons in Iraq, said Friday after stepping down from his post that he has concluded that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons at the start of the war last year.
In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Kay said he now thought that Iraq had illicit weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but that the subsequent combination of United Nations inspections and Iraq’s own decisions “got rid of them.”
Asked directly if he was saying that Iraq did not have any large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the country, Dr. Kay replied, according to a transcript of the taped interview made public by Reuters, “That is correct.”
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