Monday, February 03, 2014

Over 130 reported dead

Nouri's assault on Anbar Province continues with All Iraq News reporting a security source has told them "that the security forces are preparing to storm in Fallujah city."  Wael Grace (Al Mada) reports Anbar government officials are calling such an attack "madness" and stating it will only increase the national crisis.  MP Hamid al-Mutlaq denounces the plan as "insane" and declares that it can only lead to more blood spilled and more cracks and fissures in the national unity.  He states you cannot call for peace while screaming war.

Khaled Qaraghouli (Kitabat) notes the military assault on the cities of Anbar has resulted in indiscriminate bombing and shelling which have in turn led many to flee their homes -- fleeing from the military, which is supposed to provide safety -- and becoming displaced while the public infrastructure in Anbar is being destroyed by the bombings and shellings.

Friday, a horrific video came out of Anbar and made it to YouTube.  From that day's snapshot:

On YouTube video has surfaced of Nouri's forces today . . . next to a man being burned alive.  Did they set the Sunni male on fire?  It appears they're not concerned with putting out the fire so it's fair to conclude they started it.   It's the sort of government cruelty that's led Iraqis to protest in the first place.


That video is impossible to forget.

Mahdi Jassim (Kitabat) notes the video  today in a column that opens noting how Iraq (which created the zero) is seen as the owners of the written word, that a Moroccan friend points this out to Mahdi Jassim.  And how Jassim wonders what the impact of that video will be on the way people see Iraq, watching soldiers dancing next to corpses being burned?  Mahdi Jassim asks where is God's humanity and how can that soldier be dancing while the corpse is burning?   Jassim writes of wanting to believe it was a lie, wanting to believe it was being seen wrong somehow  Jassim writes that it appears the government is now beyond all laws -- international and humanitarian -- and that shameful crimes, barbaric crimes are being carried out.   Jassim says that as the government continues to fail to rebuke the actions captured on video, it sends a message that these actions are not the plans of a few soldiers but the direction that the government itself has trained the soldiers to carry out.

It's a very strong column. 

Nothing like it has appeared in the US press but the US press hasn't even noted the video which surfaced Friday -- still hasn't noted the video.

Let's note some of the day's violence thus far. National Iraqi News Agency reports 2 Abu Deshir car bombings left 1 person dead and sixteen more injured, Joint Operations Command announced they killed 3 suspects in Mosul and burned their car as well, 1 civilian was shot dead in Baquba, a Taj al-Din car bombing left three people injured, an eastern Baghdad sticky bombing (Palestine Street) left 1 police member killed and another injured, a Sadr City car bombing left five people injured, attacks in Abu Garma and al-Mukhisa villages left 2 Iraqi soldiers dead and two more and one Sahwa injured,  the Ministry of Defense announced their forces had killed 57 people in Anbar Province today, this apparently does not include the 57 that the MoD announced they had killed last night and today in Ramadi alone, an attack on a checkpoint "northeast of Baquba" left three Iraqi soldiers injured, 4 corpses were discovered dumped in Baghdad (all were shot dead), 2 Baghdad shootings left 1 person dead and another injured, Tigris Operations Command announced they had killed "the Emir of the ISIS and four of his aids" in Diyala Province, security forces announced that northeast of Baquba they killed "a close relative" of a man they suspect of being a terrorist, and Dr. Essam Hassan (the "Acting Iraqiya Rector" -- Iraqiya University) survived an assassination attempt (by grenade) in Baghdad today.  All Iraq News adds a Mahmoudiya suicide car bomber took his own life and that of four other people while leaving fifteen more injured.

Check my math, but I believe that's 138 reported dead and forty-seven reported injured.


I'm tired and I'm going to word this as nicely as possible.  I don't have time to read all of your companies books.  In my offline life, I have friends who send me their books or their publishing companies books.  That's fine.  But unless it's a friend sending galleys and needing them marked up with input, I don't rush to read the books.  Honestly, I may never read some.  Since I started this site, I have not read one new novel (unless it was in galley form -- or even pre-galley form if it was a novel a friend was writing).  Everything -- except for re-reading -- has been non-fiction.

My time is limited. 

I've stated that before over and over.

I have even written _____ -- who I don't know and have never met -- and said, "If you write a press release and e-mail it -- not as an attachment, we don't open those -- I will copy and paste here."

That didn't seem to me to be that much to ask.

First of all, any good publishing house -- big or small -- is going to put out several press releases on a new book.  So I'm not asking that they create something for me.

I'm only asking that they pass on what they already create and we will note it here.

So why do I have two PDF books from the company in today's e-mail? 

I've even noted that I'm sick of the computer and the laptop and the tablet.  I've noted that I just want to get away from online these days. 

I want to read something I can physically turn the page of.

So not only are you not sending me any press releases, but you're sending me books to read and you want me to write about them.

I've already explained here two times and once in an e-mail to you, I don't have that time.

I spent three hours Saturday looking at a very raw, early cut of a friend's film and then an hour more discussing what I thought of this or that scene, answering what emotion, a series of shots evoked -- should the cuts move quicker or was that distracting, etc., etc.

I have demands on me for this website.  I have demands on me from friends who have every right in the world to say, "Read this" or "watch this."  I have other demands and needs from friends and family. 

I don't know you.  I don't want to do anything to harm your business and I will gladly -- because I support reading -- run any press release on a book -- that's not the KKK or something similar (I support the right for everyone to publish, I support free speech, but I'm not going to promote every form of published book here).

What I can't do, what I don't have time for, is to read each of your company's book releases and write up reviews and write up mentions and help you sell the book that way.

I'm sorry but that's the reality, I just don't have the time.

And I really am sorry but my plate is not just full, it's overflowing.  I've told you what I can do, I've told you that's all I can do.  If that's not good enough for you, stop asking for help because you're asking more than I can give.


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