What I have time for.
That refers to some of what's gone up tonight before this.
It also refers to an e-mail about the illegal spying and why didn't it make any snapshots this week?
This week, spying was noted here in two entries and in Isaiah's comic:
Could it have been covered more?
Sure. And other things would have had to wait.
deck the halls
i'm young again
i'm you again
racing turtles
the grapefruit is winning
seems i keep getting this story twisted
so where’s neil when you need him
deck the halls
it's you again
it's you again
somewhere someone must know the ending
is she still pissing in the river now
heard she’d gone
moved into a trailer park
so sure we were on something
your feet finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
you feet just on the ground girl
so sure we were on something
your feet finally on the ground he said
so sure we were on something
your feet are just on the ground
-- "Space Dog," written by Tori Amos, first appears on her Under the Pink
I was at two Congressional hearings this week that didn't even get a mention in the snapshot.
If things weren't so busy in Iraq, we would have covered the hearings in the snapshot.
I don't understand it myself. Fewer and fewer western outlets cover Iraq. But that doesn't mean things have gone silent in the country. I also promised myself that the KRG elections would get mentioned in every snapshot until the election results were announced.
I know the media rushed off everywhere but I still can't believe how little attention the KRG elections got.
There are a ton of important stories that fall within our scope but we didn't have time for. Sorry, I'm one person doing as much as I can.
Of what didn't get covered or barely got covered? I wish I'd had time for more on the executions. One snapshot briefly noted the news that 23 people were executed in Iraq on two days last month. That was it. (90 is the number executed for the year so far -- at least 90.)
On the executions, Jamie Taraby (Al Jazeera) reports today:
When she called on the Iraqi government to issue an immediate moratorium on the death penalty last year, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said she was stunned at the number of offenses for which people can be put to death. There are around 48 crimes that are eligible, including, under certain circumstances, damage to public property.
Following the execution of 34 people, including two women, on Jan. 19, 2012, Navi said in a news release, “Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offenses for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a truly shocking figure.”
“Most disturbingly, we do not have a single report of anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact that there are well documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress.”
Responding to Navi Pillay’s condemnation, Iraqi parliamentarian Izzat al-Shabandar said, “This statement means nothing to us. The people that have been executed are criminals. The timing of the executions is up to the judiciary and the government authorities, and they [the U.N.] don’t have the right to interfere in our internal issues.”
It's an important issue. It's also one that's shameful in the US as well where executions continue. There's no high ground for an American, an honest one, to stand on when this topic's discussed. Although I do notice a lot of US outlets, when they do cover the executions in Iraq, refrain from noting the US.
In 2012, refer to this Amnesty International chart/graph, Iraq had at least 129 executions. It came in third for executions (behind Iran which was behind China). Saudi Arabia followed Iraq. But fifth place was the United States.
The United States is the only western nation to make the list (there are 21 countries on the list). The only other industrialized nation? Japan at number ten.
(China has massive pollution from factories but it is not put on the list of industrialized countries. For an example of a list of industrialized countries, you can refer to this Medicare for All page.)
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4489.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
