Because it needs saying again

After each month ends, for some stupid reason, various outlets run with the 'number' dead for the month . . . as supplied by the Iraqi government ministries. The same ministries responsible for telling people that things are better in Iraq, do business there, come home to it.

It makes no sense at all. Some of the outlets, such as Reuters, report on the violence daily. Why are they unable to compile that data at the end of the month?

Throughout the early years of the Iraq War, the press (and indeed George W. Bush) used the figures provided by the Iraq Body Count. The press doesn't use those numbers anymore . . . now that they are higher than the tabulations of the Iraqi government.

What kind of 'independent' press is one that refuses to keep a count on their own and also refuses to use an independent body's count?

This is an issue that was raised in Thursday's "Iraq snapshot" and we thought it deserved underlining here:

Among the many things we need to cover today is violence. It's June 2nd, the month of May is over, so let's look back. May 1st, 4 were reported dead and 17 injured. May 2nd, 4 dead and 21 injured. May 3rd, 15 dead and 40 injured. May 4th, 8 dead and 7 injured. May 5th, 30 dead and 90 injured. May 6th, 3 dead and 7 injured. May 7th, 9 dead and 18 injured. May 8th, 17 dead and 11 injured. May 9th, 4 dead and 19 injured. May 10th, 2 dead and 8 injured. May 11th, 2 dead and 16 injured. May 12th, 7 dead. May 13th, 3 injured. May 15th, 8 dead and 19 injured. May 16th, 14 dead and 16 injured. May 17th, 25 dead and 7 injured. May 18th, 6 dead and 2 injured. May 19th, 37 dead and 102 injured. May 20th, 7 dead and 14 injured. May 22nd, 23 dead and 47 injured. May 23rd, 13 and 10. May 25th, 5 dead and 30 injured. May 26th, 26 dead and 12 injured. May 27th, 2 dead (we're not counting the young boy killed by his cousin when they were playing with guns -- though that death was certainly at the very least 'inspired by the Iraq War'). May 28th, 5 dead. May 29th, 2 dead and 10 injured. May 30th, 4 dead and 6 injured. May 31st, 2 dead and 3 injured. Check my math, that should add up to 284 deaths and 535 wounded. Iraqi Body Count -- which does a far better job of tracking than I do -- notes 353 reported deaths.

Xinhua announces that "May's death toll was the lowest since December 2010, when the authorities announced the death of 151 Iraqis." That might be true . . . if the figures Xinhua uses were accurate. They announce, using figures by the Ministry of Interior, Defense and Health, only 171 deaths in Iraq (excluding US soldiers -- we didn't count them yet either). That would be a lie. LIE. Reuters runs with the same FALSE figures because, despite reporting daily deaths and injuries, it's just too hard for the little guys and gals to keep track of what they report -- or, more honestly, they're as sick of their reporting as so many others are.

Did violence decrease in May? No. Drop back to the May 2nd snapshot and you'll see we counted 262 deaths and 598 injured for the month of April. 284 deaths for the month of May would be an increase. And Iraqi Body Count (refer to the snapshot) found 283 were killed in April and they find 353 for the month of May.

Increase.

It's a two syllable word and that may be more than many US reporters can manage but it is, indeed, an "increase" from the month of April. And just because three government ministries tell you otherwise doesn't make a lie true. In fact, it's past time for the press that refuses to keep their own count to stop repeating what they know each month is a lie. Each month they run with the lies. It's not a mistake, it's not an error. It's deliberate and it should have stopped long ago.

John Drake is a consultent with AKE and we'll note his Tweets on weekly violence for the month of May.

John Drake's Twitter feed May 9th:

johnfdrake John Drake

At least 78 people were killed and 233 injured in violence in #Iraq last week.

12 hours ago

and

John Drake's Twitter feed May 16th:

johnfdrake John Drake

At least 26 people were killed and 128 injured in attacks in #Iraq last week.

15 hours ago

johnfdrake John Drake

At least 90 people were killed and 244 injured in violence in #Iraq last week. It was a bad one.

23 May

johnfdrake John Drake

At least 34 people were killed and 117 injured in violence in #Iraq last week.

30 May

That was not a complete count (and he didn't pretend it was) but his totals? 228 dead and 722 injured. Supposedly reputable news outlets are really going to pretend that the Iraqi government figure of 171 deaths for the month of May is accurate? Really?

Or we're going to pretend the numbers Prashant Rao put into a computer graph program mean a damn thing? Seriously? All they mean is Prashant wasted his time and now wants to waste ours. You're better than that, all of you, and your readers deserve better.

Repost from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:

Nuclear power dealt blow by protest power

comment on article | email | print
Share on: Delicious | Digg | reddit | Facebook | StumbleUpon

The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March has led to an unprecedented climb down in one of the world’s biggest economies.

Germany says it will close all its nuclear reactors by 2022, following mass protests.

This has massive implications for the nuclear industry. Nuclear power currently provides a quarter of Germany’s electricity.

Germany will become the biggest capitalist power to completely reject nuclear power.

This shows that major capitalist countries will ditch nuclear power if we put enough pressure on them. We should demand that David Cameron does the same here.

But there’s a problem. Germany now plans to open new coal-fired power stations instead.

Europe’s energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said, “There will be more coal power, with consequences for CO2 emissions.”

Carbon emissions are rising at a terrifying rate. The International Energy Agency estimates that emissions increased by a record amount last year and that we now have the highest level of carbon emissions in history.

This makes the goal of limiting global temperature rises to below two degrees Celsius more remote. Ordinary people around the world will be more likely to suffer the effects of disastrous climate change.

Increasing coal use will make this even worse. But nuclear isn’t green—carbon is emitted at every stage of its production.

The full impact of Fukushima is still being revealed. But it’s already clear that it was a bigger disaster than originally thought.

Tepco, the company that owns the Fukushima plant, now admits that there were meltdowns at three reactors at the site. The radiation emitted will have an impact on the environment for years to come.

The real solution to climate change is a massive investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

But this would challenge the entrenched big business interests at the heart of capitalism.

Germany’s decision shows that pressure from below can force change—but it also shows the limits of the changes that capitalism will concede.

We need to fight for a world run by ordinary people if we are to have any chance of stopping climate change.

---

© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

Workers World repost:

The police & rape

By Monica Moorehead

Published Jun 1, 2011 5:13 PM

Consider these horrific facts provided by the National Organization for Women: Every year approximately 132,000 women report they have been violently violated by rape or attempted rape. More than half of that number knew their attackers. It’s estimated that two to six times that many women are raped, but do not report it. Every year 1.2 million women are raped by their current or former male partners, some more than once.

The United States has the highest rape rate among countries that report such statistics. It is four times higher than that of Germany, 13 times higher than that of Great Britain, and 20 times higher than that of Japan.

Does the sexual assault of women by male police officers factor anywhere into these statistics? Putting aside individual cases here and there, the answer is “no.” So it is within this general context that the egregious May 26 acquittal of two New York Police Department officers on rape charges should be viewed.

Officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata were called to help an intoxicated woman out of a taxi and escort her safely to her apartment. They were videotaped entering the East Village apartment of the woman, not once, not twice, but three times on Dec. 7, 2008. Moreno was charged with actually sexually assaulting the woman as Mata stood guard while this violence took place.

Both officers were found guilty of three counts of “official misconduct” — all misdemeanors — followed by termination of their jobs. In other words, they only got a slap on the wrist. The officers face up to one year on each charge of misconduct and will be sentenced in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on June 28.

People throughout the city became outraged with the verdict. A protest organized by women’s groups was held on May 27 in front of the courthouse where the trial took place.

Cops are no heroes

This latest incident holds important lessons. From the earliest days of childhood, it is drummed into our heads that the “policeman” is our “friend” and “protector.” This indoctrination continues throughout adulthood with an endless, nauseating parade of TV dramas and Hollywood movies, all glorifying the dangerous “job” of being a police officer. But this is not the reality.

Under capitalist society, the police are a deadly force of men and women trained to keep “order” for the small class of multimillionaires and billionaires whose corporations and banks control all the wealth created by the global working class. This “order” has created entrenched poverty, massive unemployment, slave wages, racial profiling, the incarceration of millions, and unprecedented objectification of women.

Bourgeois laws that are enforced with such harshness, degradation and insensitivity by the courts exist not only to protect the interest of the haves versus the have-nots, but also to protect the repressive force — the police. In fact, the police are above any laws that are meant to keep the masses in check. When has anyone ever heard of a police officer receiving a death sentence for killing an unarmed African American, Latino/a or working-class youth? Yet these senseless killings are almost an everyday occurrence, especially in large urban areas where there are no jobs and dire poverty.

If a woman dares to try to bring an accused rapist to justice, in many instances her character is actually put on trial by defense attorneys and their witnesses, who try to blame her for the violence brought upon her. Women in numerous rape cases are accused of “asking for it” based on how they are dressed or for being intoxicated.

Women should have the right to feel safe and be safe. Period. The police are not the answer. It will take a socialist revolution to usher in a humane, cooperative society to guarantee full equality for all women and ensure women’s rights and safety.

---

Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news DONATE

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"Protesting in Iraq" -- most requested highlight of the week by readers of this site.

"Kat's Korner: Give 'em the keys," "Kat's Korner: It was nothing, he insisted loudly," and
"Kat's Korner: The Master of the Teen Drama" -- Kat reviews three albums.

"Memorial Day" -- Mike offers a Memorial Day post.

"Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- C.I. offers reporting on Congressional hearings.

"Asparagus in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a recipe and some talk about the economy.

"That old boys network," "Indicted" and "Melanie Sloane loves John Edwards" -- John Edwards was indicted Friday, Betty, Ruth and Marcia weigh in.


"Milk Money" -- Stan goes to the movies while Ann covers radio . . .

• 4 men, 3 women
• Dance off
• 3 men, 1 woman
• 6 men, 3 women

. . . and Rebecca covers TV

• justified
• cybill iii
• cybill ii
• cybill

"The Event" -- and Marcia weighs in on the season finale (series finale?) of The Event.

"Saturday's Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party," "Saturday Dance Off," "Kris Welch and the awful Living Room," "Dance off," "Why a Dance Off?," "Thomas Jefferson Memorial Dance Party," "Put on your boogie shoes," "Adam Kokesh's Dance Party," "Sly said 'Dance to the music!,'" "Adam Kokesh's Dance Party," "Do you wanna dance?" and "THIS JUST IN! DO YOU WANT TO DANCE?" -- some of the community efforts to get the word out on Adam Kokesh's dance party.


"Bad films, bad self-parody" -- Kat on decay.

"Look who's rescuing him again" -- Ruth notes the press rescuing you-know-who yet again.

"Shame on the reporters" -- Kat calls out faking news photos.


"Netflix questions" -- Stan dips into the e-mails.

"Unfortunate" -- Elaine shows how a quick post is done.

"The bi-partisan scam" -- Mike calls out the nonsense of playing shirts & skins and rooting on any team that wants to cut your benefits.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall" and "THIS JUST IN! NOT SO BELOVED!" -- Cedric and Wally weigh in on the American Princess.

Truest statement of the week

Second question: Why do so many “progressive” men seem to have so many misogynist slurs sloshing around in their heads?

Having asked those questions, let’s make a few observations:

Ed Schultz isn’t the first. Keith Olbermann engaged in open misogyny for years—and liberals kept their pretty traps shut. For years, we wondered if we were the only ones who were struck by this incessant behavior. (It wasn’t fun complaining about his conduct in the face of massive silence.)

Eventually, we got our answer: A bunch of liberal “intellectual leaders” had found his conduct repellent too—but they had refused to say so in public! See THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/28/11. Hint: Careerist “liberal leaders” may not be tremendous good people.

Ed Schultz isn’t the first. Chris Matthews engaged in ugly misogyny for the better part of a decade. In January 2008, a miracle occurred: The liberal world began to notice; incredibly, many liberals even began to complain! (After all those years, we have no idea why that suddenly happened.) In response, Rachel Maddow ran out and vouched for Matthews, big-time. One week later, she signed her first contract at The One True Liberal Channel.

(See THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/21/08; scroll down to “STARR REPORT.” Also, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/15/08.)

Today, Maddow is paid $2 million per year, if Newsweek knows its stuff. To us, this event raised the first warning flag about this self-impressed child. We do hope her money spends good.

-- Bob Somerby on Ed Schultz's suspension (The Daily Howler).

Truest statement of the week II

The liberal class, which attempted last week to discredit the words my friend Cornel West spoke about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, prefers comfort and privilege to justice, truth and confrontation. Its guiding ideological stance is determined by what is most expedient to the careers of its members. It refuses to challenge, in a meaningful way, the decaying structures of democracy or the ascendancy of the corporate state. It glosses over the relentless assault on working men and women and the imperial wars that are bankrupting the nation. It proclaims its adherence to traditional liberal values while defending and promoting systems of power that mock these values. The pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, the church, culture, the university, labor and the Democratic Party—all honor an unwritten quid pro quo with corporations and the power elite, as well as our masters of war, on whom they depend for money, access and positions of influence. Those who expose this moral cowardice and collaboration with corporate power are always ruthlessly thrust aside. The capitulation of the liberal class to corporate capitalism, as Irving Howe once noted, has “bleached out all political tendencies.” The liberal class has become, Howe wrote, “a loose shelter, a poncho rather than a program; to call oneself a liberal one doesn’t really have to believe in anything.” The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state. As Dwight Macdonald wrote in “The Root Is Man,” those who do not make human beings the center of their concern soon lose the capacity to make any ethical choices, for they willingly sacrifice others in the name of the politically expedient and practical. -- Chris Hedges, "Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West" (Information Clearing House).

A note to our readers

Hey --
Another Sunday. And we're late as usual.


First, we thank all who participated this week which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

And content?

• • Truest statement of the week
• Bob Somerby for telling the truth about MSNBC then and now.
• 
  
  • Truest statement of the week II
  Chris Hedges for calling out the pathetic schills who attacked Cornel West to prove what 'good soldiers' they were.
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Editorial: Who is the US military propping up?
  It's really past time that the press start the conversation about what sort of government exists in Iraq. The editorial board of The New York Times attempted to jump-start that conversation a few months back. It did not take. It will require more than one outlet.
• 
  
  • TV: The CW falls, The CW rises
  Ava and C.I.'s look at Smallville, The CW and the state of TV.
• 
  
  • Has the White House broken the Hatch Act?
  A serious question and we're apparently the first to ask it.
• 
  
  • Just Another Iraq War success story
  The illegal war has many victims.
  
• 
  
  • Diane Rehm manages to book even fewer women (Ann, ...
  Ann, Ava and C.I. wrote this and we thank them for it. They will do this study for at least three months. After that, they're not sure.
• 
  
  • Applauding Mickey Z and other truth tellers
  Rebecca and C.I. brought the idea for this piece to the edition. We applaud Mickey and wish we had many, many more truth tellers like him.
• 
  
  • The TV roundtable
  Before time ran out, there was going to be two roundtables: A TV one and an Iraq one.
• 
  
  • FBI witch-hunt (Workers World)
  A repost from Workers World.
• 
  
  • Highlights
  Mike and the gang wrote this. We thank them for it.
• 
  

Dona and I (Jim) worked on the Iraqi piece and only that. This edition was really steered by Jess, Ava and C.I. We thank them for that.


Peace.

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Editorial: Who is the US military propping up?

It's truly amazing, week after week, to watch as so much of the US press pretends that Iraq is a democracy. Excuse us, as so much of the small portion of the US press which pays attention to Iraq insists that it's a democracy.

As in the US, Iraq has three branches of government: Executive, legislative and judicial. Iraq, like the US, has a Constitution. Like the US, the Iraqi Constitution outlines what the powers of each branch are.

Last week, New Sabah reported that Nouri al-Maliki was continuing to assert that he, as prime minister, has the right to write the laws and all Iraq's legislative branch, the Parliament, has the power to do is to vote up or down on the proposed legislation Nouri submits. Only he or the country's ceremonial president (Jalal Talabani), according to Nouri, can write laws.

This is what the US lost lives for? To install a new dictator?

This is why the US has to stay in Iraq past 2011? To maintain Nouri's dictatorship?

(On staying in Iraq past 2011, check out Kelly McEvers report for today's Weekend Edition.)

Nouri is targeting the press, he's targeting the Iraqi people (especially protesters) and the answer, to the White House, is to keep propping up Nouri?

Something was birthed in Iraq after the invasion, but it wasn't democracy.






Illustration is Isaiah's "Not Quite There."