I love effective visualizations, and the Billion Dollar gram is a very simple and effective way to help normal people understand the relative sizes of some of the ridiculously large dollar values attached to various government, corporate, and public initiatives. As someone who enjoys data visualization I appreciate it. As a human being, I can’t get past that items across the top row without feeling a combination of almost blinding rage and terrible, terrible shame.
Tag: iraq
Conservatives condone suspension of due process and torture of children.
And then there’s this one, which makes me so angry I’m not sure I can even write coherently about it. A day after a report revealed Canadian officials knew of Omar Khadr’s harsh treatment by the U.S. military, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday repeated vows to leave the case in U.S. hands. … A Canadian official visiting Khadr in… Read more →
Conservatives in league with war criminals, despite will of the public
Here’s one that both angers me and makes me embarrassed to be a Canadian: globeandmail.com: Canada deports U.S. army deserter U.S. army deserter Robin Long was quietly deported from Canada Tuesday morning, while protesters unaware of his whereabouts picketed the Canada-U.S. border crossing south of Vancouver. The first and most important question here is why are we letting a minority… Read more →
I am shocked! Shocked I tell you.
And in is-anyone-surprised-by-this news, the Senate intel committee’s Phase II report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq is just out. You can read the details and the reports themselves over at TPM. I’ll just list some of the choice points from Sen. Rockafeller’s press release, and if any of them surprise you, raise your hand and give yourself a firm smack… Read more →
I’ve Got The Box
Did you catch the snippet from (retired) General Sanchez’s new book that was in the WaPo earlier this week? As I was reading this bit: During a videoconference with his national security team and generals, Sanchez writes, Bush launched into what he described as a “confused” pep talk: “Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Memorial Day Edition
I guess I just think that the best way to honor the sacrifices of our veterans, and the service of our soldiers, and sailors, and marines and airmen, is to not ask them to be killed or maimed in a war we should never have started in the first place. To end the Russian Roulette of tour after tour after… Read more →
One Damned Thing Over And Over
(This entire post pinched from Andrew Wheeler’s always entertaining blog. I don’t normally do that, but it’s too good, and a link won’t do.) A great power sets its sights on a smaller, strange, and faraway land — an easy target, or so it would seem. Led first by a father and then, a decade later, by his son, this… Read more →
Same As It Ever Was
I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought… Read more →
If I Were Him, I’d Just Be Saying “Told You So” All Day Long
Just for fun, let’s look at what Paul Krugman wrote five years ago. Snippet one, concerning the U.S. finances: Meanwhile, consider this: we need $400 billion a year of foreign investment to cover our trade deficit, or the dollar will plunge and our surging budget deficit will become much harder to finance — and there are already signs that the… Read more →
I used to enjoy Christopher Hitchens
…but over the last few years this has become less and less true. I’m a pretty rabid atheist, but when someone makes Dawkins look like a moderate on religion, they might have gone a bit too far, you know? And ever since he went pro-war on Iraq, his writings on foreign policy have taken on a continually more defensive and… Read more →
