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December 29, 2005
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Thursday's Links
Activism
All week, we've been telling you about which companies support the "red" vs the "blue." MSNBC has a few websites to help you out in gauging where your money is being donated. Additionally, you'll note that Amazon.com is a Republican donor! There is also a link to send a protest email to Amazon on the above site.
News
While it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that troops in Iraq are having their tours of duty extended, some troops are doing something about it. Eight American soldiers are suing to win their release from the military, explaining that the government used "material misrepresentation" to keep them active.
Last Wednesday, we linked to a Frank Rich editorial, where he discussed the "moral outrage" of such things like the Monday Night Football Terrell Owens skit being perpetrated by the Christian right. Enter Todd Shieds, who reports that, although the overall numbers of indeceny complaints were up to 240,000 in 2003, 99.8% of those complaints were made by the Parents Television Council, a horribly obscene group determined to regulate what your children are watching. Apparently, it's too difficult to watch television WITH your children, and we must be vigilant for the nudity and sexual overtones found in Pokemon!
Dude, Where's My Humvee? Donny Rumsfeld was over in Kuwait, addressing 2,300 soldiers, and taking questions. When asked why the troops don't have enough armored vehicles, and why they have to forage through metal scrap to "armor up" their vehicles, Rumsfeld replied, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up...You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." Appalling as that sentence is, kudos to Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) for calling out Rumsfeld for an "utterly unacceptable" response, writing, "Mr. Secretary, our troops go to war with the Army that our nation's leaders provide."
A lot of numbers were thrown around before the election about the size of our "coalition of the willing". Well, this site shows you exactly how many troops are deployed to Iraq, and from which countries. Some interesting details: There are 28 countries who have non-combat troops in Iraq, and that number will drop by at least 4 by next year. Currently, there are 23,900 non-American troops on the ground in Iraq, and 35% of them are British. Some countries, like Norway, have as little as 10 troops. The figure is also slightly skewed, as it includes Poland's 2500 troops. You'll recall that the President made it very clear that we had an ally in Poland during the debates, but Poland has since voted to remove all of their troops by next year. In fact, it's interesting to note that some countries, like Estonia, aren't sending troops because the people of the country believe in the war, but as a way to curry favor with the U.S. Estonia currently has 55 troops in Iraq, and they are hoping that this gesture will get them enough goodwill from America to help protect them from Russia. Perhaps it should be called the "Coalition of the Naive and/or Opportunistic."
Editorials
Chilling the Press. Eric Alterman and Paul McLeary on the relative lack of power of the media, and the emphasis of power on a local government (in this case, the state of Maryland governor's office) to disrupt the media.
On Wednesday, Governor Howard Dean spoke at George Washington University. He discussed many things, including winning back the red states (as we covered earlier this week), what the Democratic party really stands for, and where the party is going. You can read the transcript here.
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December 29, 2005
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Thursday's Links
Activism
All week, we've been telling you about which companies support the "red" vs the "blue." MSNBC has a few websites to help you out in gauging where your money is being donated. Additionally, you'll note that Amazon.com is a Republican donor! There is also a link to send a protest email to Amazon on the above site.
News
While it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that troops in Iraq are having their tours of duty extended, some troops are doing something about it. Eight American soldiers are suing to win their release from the military, explaining that the government used "material misrepresentation" to keep them active.
Last Wednesday, we linked to a Frank Rich editorial, where he discussed the "moral outrage" of such things like the Monday Night Football Terrell Owens skit being perpetrated by the Christian right. Enter Todd Shieds, who reports that, although the overall numbers of indeceny complaints were up to 240,000 in 2003, 99.8% of those complaints were made by the Parents Television Council, a horribly obscene group determined to regulate what your children are watching. Apparently, it's too difficult to watch television WITH your children, and we must be vigilant for the nudity and sexual overtones found in Pokemon!
Dude, Where's My Humvee? Donny Rumsfeld was over in Kuwait, addressing 2,300 soldiers, and taking questions. When asked why the troops don't have enough armored vehicles, and why they have to forage through metal scrap to "armor up" their vehicles, Rumsfeld replied, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up...You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." Appalling as that sentence is, kudos to Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) for calling out Rumsfeld for an "utterly unacceptable" response, writing, "Mr. Secretary, our troops go to war with the Army that our nation's leaders provide."
A lot of numbers were thrown around before the election about the size of our "coalition of the willing". Well, this site shows you exactly how many troops are deployed to Iraq, and from which countries. Some interesting details: There are 28 countries who have non-combat troops in Iraq, and that number will drop by at least 4 by next year. Currently, there are 23,900 non-American troops on the ground in Iraq, and 35% of them are British. Some countries, like Norway, have as little as 10 troops. The figure is also slightly skewed, as it includes Poland's 2500 troops. You'll recall that the President made it very clear that we had an ally in Poland during the debates, but Poland has since voted to remove all of their troops by next year. In fact, it's interesting to note that some countries, like Estonia, aren't sending troops because the people of the country believe in the war, but as a way to curry favor with the U.S. Estonia currently has 55 troops in Iraq, and they are hoping that this gesture will get them enough goodwill from America to help protect them from Russia. Perhaps it should be called the "Coalition of the Naive and/or Opportunistic."
Editorials
Chilling the Press. Eric Alterman and Paul McLeary on the relative lack of power of the media, and the emphasis of power on a local government (in this case, the state of Maryland governor's office) to disrupt the media.
On Wednesday, Governor Howard Dean spoke at George Washington University. He discussed many things, including winning back the red states (as we covered earlier this week), what the Democratic party really stands for, and where the party is going. You can read the transcript here.
|
December 29, 2005
All week, we've been telling you about which companies support the "red" vs the "blue." MSNBC has a few websites to help you out in gauging where your money is being donated. Additionally, you'll note that Amazon.com is a Republican donor! There is also a link to send a protest email to Amazon on the above site.
News
While it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that troops in Iraq are having their tours of duty extended, some troops are doing something about it. Eight American soldiers are suing to win their release from the military, explaining that the government used "material misrepresentation" to keep them active.
Last Wednesday, we linked to a Frank Rich editorial, where he discussed the "moral outrage" of such things like the Monday Night Football Terrell Owens skit being perpetrated by the Christian right. Enter Todd Shieds, who reports that, although the overall numbers of indeceny complaints were up to 240,000 in 2003, 99.8% of those complaints were made by the Parents Television Council, a horribly obscene group determined to regulate what your children are watching. Apparently, it's too difficult to watch television WITH your children, and we must be vigilant for the nudity and sexual overtones found in Pokemon!
Dude, Where's My Humvee? Donny Rumsfeld was over in Kuwait, addressing 2,300 soldiers, and taking questions. When asked why the troops don't have enough armored vehicles, and why they have to forage through metal scrap to "armor up" their vehicles, Rumsfeld replied, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up...You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." Appalling as that sentence is, kudos to Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) for calling out Rumsfeld for an "utterly unacceptable" response, writing, "Mr. Secretary, our troops go to war with the Army that our nation's leaders provide."
A lot of numbers were thrown around before the election about the size of our "coalition of the willing". Well, this site shows you exactly how many troops are deployed to Iraq, and from which countries. Some interesting details: There are 28 countries who have non-combat troops in Iraq, and that number will drop by at least 4 by next year. Currently, there are 23,900 non-American troops on the ground in Iraq, and 35% of them are British. Some countries, like Norway, have as little as 10 troops. The figure is also slightly skewed, as it includes Poland's 2500 troops. You'll recall that the President made it very clear that we had an ally in Poland during the debates, but Poland has since voted to remove all of their troops by next year. In fact, it's interesting to note that some countries, like Estonia, aren't sending troops because the people of the country believe in the war, but as a way to curry favor with the U.S. Estonia currently has 55 troops in Iraq, and they are hoping that this gesture will get them enough goodwill from America to help protect them from Russia. Perhaps it should be called the "Coalition of the Naive and/or Opportunistic."
Editorials
Chilling the Press. Eric Alterman and Paul McLeary on the relative lack of power of the media, and the emphasis of power on a local government (in this case, the state of Maryland governor's office) to disrupt the media.
On Wednesday, Governor Howard Dean spoke at George Washington University. He discussed many things, including winning back the red states (as we covered earlier this week), what the Democratic party really stands for, and where the party is going. You can read the transcript here.
