News – From the Reporter Himself

Iraq

I don’t’ think I posted this before: This is from the blog of the reporter who filmed the shooting of a wounded insurgent. In his own words, his own observations and thoughts. It’s a good read from a man who isn’t anti-war, yet knows when to ask an uncomfortable question. It left me with much to consider.

US Brigadier General Carter Ham says that Mosul faces elections in January without a reliable and effective police presence after three quarters of the 4,000 strong force that was there either deserted or joined the insurgents during a two-day uprising in the city this month. Obviously there is a lot of work to be done there in the next two months.

Foreign ministers at a conference on Iraq’s future noted to the Interim Iraqi government that it must make sure as many people as possible take part in the Jan 30th voting. A given, really. If a lot of people who want to vote are denied or don’t vote for obvious reasons of boycott, it weakens the results.

A second Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ghaleb al-Zuheir of the Muslim Clerics Association, in as many days has been gunned down. There is no evidence yet that his death is linked to the matching drive by slaying of Sheikh Feydhi Mohammed al-Feydhi in Mosul, though he is brother to the Muslim Clerics Association’s official spokesman

US troops believe they found the house where British hostage Kenneth Bigley was held and killed in October. One of twenty ‘atrocity sites’ they say they’ve come across.

In Iraq, while the adults play war, the kids to as well, though with relatively harmless pellet guns rather than the real thing.

Israel/Palestine

Colin Powell has won assurances from Sharon that Israel will ease its grip on the occupied territories and allow greater freedom of movement before the Palestinian presidential election in January.

Arafat’s cause of death remains unknown, but his medical file has revealed that no known poisons were in his system.

Afghanistan

Another note of pure good news, the three UN hostages in Afghanistan were released unharmed. Seems they were abandoned with no deal made to effect it. A curious turn of events.

Iran

So enrichment is said to have stopped. The next question is what will quell US skepticism? Not unfounded skepticism, but the US should be looking to verify it now. They should be defining what will satisfy them and pushing for it to be done.

Africa

Lieutenant Colonel Ephrem Setako, former Rawandan military officer, is on trial for six counts of genocide for helping to plan the 1994 tragedy as well as distributing weapons and even taking part in the killing of Tutsi civilians in Ruhengeri and Kigali-ville prefectures.

The UN is investigating 150 allegations of sexual abuse by UN civilian staff and soldiers in Congo. Whoever is conducting such acts, when found out, should be dealt with accordingly and with extreme prejudice.

US

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that new Medicare drug plan would help the poorest elderly most, but would have a quarter paying more for their drugs. Medicare officials say some of Kaiser’s data is flawed and did not include other coverage options from state programs, supplemental insurance and retiree plans. Their data didn’t include other Medicare-related costs, including higher overall yearly dues, which jumped to 17.4 percent for next year.

The congress has approved a 300 million boost to emergency finds that help the poor and elderly pay home heating bills, costs for heating expected to rise sharply this winter.

A scaled back version of a controversial copyright bill(Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004, or SB3021, a revised version of the Intellectual Property Protection Act (HR2391)). It imposes heavy penalties on those caught with camcorders in movie theaters, while losing the provisions that copyright-reform activists had criticized. Though they’re not fully appeased, they find the bill much more palatable now.

Congress has, rightly in my opinion, chosen to remove the $36.6 million slated in the $388 billion dollar spending bill that would have been used to research new smaller nukes for use of bunker busters. Bush says they’d not build them, so why waste the cash on researching something that won’t be made or used? When he wants to come right out to the American people and admit they really, really want these bunker busters, they can try and get the money. Until then, we need to stop proliferation at home as well as abroad.

An anti-piracy czar has been made by recent legislation passed, whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law. Sounds like the DHS for piracy, which isn’t necessarily a compliment. I don’t particularly care for the DHS overall. The concept is nice, but the execution has been poor. I suspect the same will be said for this one.

A plane that was sent to pick up former president Bush crashed as it was arriving to get him, the crash shown to be an accidental one. All three crew were killed in the crash.

The most dangerous city in the US is currently Camden, New Jersey while the safest is Newton Massachusetts.

Has the Cabinet become a largely worthless entity in the executive branch, with limited and waning power and influence? Compared to George Washington’s cabinet, it seems so.

General

Dartmouth college students have created software they say can spot a real work of art from a fake. Their first finding with it is that a painting purportedly by Perugino may have been done by four different artists

Yup, you too can now assassinate Kenedy. The designers of the just released game, JFK Reloaded, intented it to show that it was entorey possible for a lone gunman to conduct the assassination. Suffice it to say that the Kennedy family is not amused by this new game. Regardless, I can say I have no intent to buy the game.. in part because there just isn’t that much to it, likely a reason why it’s being sold for $10.

Forbes comes with seven ways to foil ID thieves. Protect yourselves, readers.

Amusements

Newspaper congratulating “Australian Idol” winner directs readers to gay porn site

Michael Moore tops list of ‘least intriguing celebrities’

Dandruff not just the cause of social embarrassment. Could also land you in jail

The name I dare not say. Man copyrights his name and charges $500,000 for each use

Thirteen-year-old boy abducts exotic dancer, becomes prepubescent legend

Wal-Mart heiress pays $20,000 for her homework to be done for her. University of Missouri not happy their brand new basketball arena was named after her, especially since she attends USC

When trying to carjack somebody’s wheels, make sure you can drive a stick

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop the person that Howard Stern is waving at

Fark Photoshop Challenge: InstaPS: This fool and his bear

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Wonder Woman, the later years