Plunderbund

Yesterday I did a little number crunching. This morning, I decided to chart some of those numbers to make it easier to see trends. The first thing to note is that I did replace one data value - April 2004’s number of 126 deaths - with the grand mean of 54.15789. While […]

I’ve mostly found the numerical alchemy by the right amusing, however something over at BrainShavings was too egregious to go unmentioned.
Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” A prescient man, that Ben.
Boy, you got that right. It seems The Puddle Pirate takes exception […]

Big surprise, right? Boehner on the surge in January:
I think it will be rather clear in the next 60 to 90 days as to whether this plan is going to work. And, again, that’s why we need to have close oversight, so that we just don’t look up 60 or 90 days from now […]

I watched the documentary The War Tapes over my break. Tremendous. Shot entirely by soldiers in-theater, with their own commentary. I especially like the liberal guy who immigrated from Lebanon as a kid, Zack Bazzi. He was snarky, funny, and aware of what was going on.
I highly recommend watching this. […]

The threat posed by terrorists is so unprecedented, that we must resort to torture (except not call it that) in order to win, right?
Wrong.

George W. Bush, 2006:
In this new kind of war, we must be willing to question the enemy when we pick them up on the battlefield. (Applause.) We have captured people like Khalid […]

That’s how Ari “Mouth of Sauron” Fleischer’s new organization - Freedom’s Watch - answers their phones. They are encouraging people to call their Congressman - by calling Freedom’s Watch. If you support the war, they connect you thru to Congress, as documented in this video from Americans United for Change.

You can see Freedom’s […]

First it’s comedic genius Alec Baldwin’s ugly divorce proceedings (and it’s ugly fallout with his daughter), now it’s Born-Again Stephen “BioDome” Baldwin’s unfortunate involvement in turning the Iraq War into millennialist proselytizing.
Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe […]

Heh. OK. WooPoo U was one of many beloved nicknames cadets had for West Point - probably more since I was there. The rock. The point. You get the picture. This news came back in April, but I just wandered upon it in one of those odd multi-tiered search […]

The stabilization of Iraq cannot be accomplished thru strength of force; at least, not in such a way that we can just up and leave when “the job is done”. Realistically, the job will never be done if we try to do it by force:
That’s why so many Sunnis have accepted Petraeus’s bargain — […]

Elections have consequences. Our soldiers are bearing a heavy burden for our county’s failure to elect a responsible President in the past two Presidential elections.
(HT for the photo to AsOhioGoes.)

Administration bullshit being laid bare.
Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi […]

Of course, those of us who are propagandistic assholes know that it’s entirely possible to be pro-soldier and anti-Iraq-war. Many of us have tired long ago of being called “anti-American” for being against the Iraq War. So the question posed in the title above is clearly hogwash to begin with.
But it hasn’t been […]

Now we are turning back an Iraqi women who fled the country because she was raped by some of Saddam’s henchmen. Where are we sending her back to? War torn Iraq of course! Why? Because she fled to Mexico in order to get here. She was unaware of the policy […]

This puts wingnuts in a real conundrum. “Let’s see…hmmm…do I ’support our troops?’ or do I ‘hate on the illegals?’…choices, choices”:
(CBS/AP) While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.
Based on […]

I forgot to send this in to the Hillary Clinton campaign song contest. I think it’s about right:

Sabbath circa 1970.
Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.