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“God, I hate mustard. I don’t like condiments. Condiments in general I find unsettling. I don’t like ketchup. I don’t like mayonnaise. I didn’t have salad dressing until I was in college, I swear to God.”

“I wasn’t ready. When I was a little kid I wouldn’t eat cucumbers unless my mother cut out the seeds. That behavior should not be tolerated, first of all. My mother did a horrible, horrible job. Thankfully I can now eat a whole cucumber. ”

Source

I don’t know who or what this says about whom, but it doesn’t sound like a formidable “solution” for either.

A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post.

First word of strained relations began leaking out with consistency earlier this month.

At the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Schumer’s asks a simple direct question… “Did the President send you…”.  Gonzales is a broken record… <sigh>  Get him out!

Hailing from London, of Sri Lankan decent, M.I.A. has been a favorite of mine since a friend I met in Vienna introduced me to her sound.  This is from her sophomore album due out next month.

M.I.A. | KALA | 20 Dollar

Politics in action… for “high crimes and misdemeanors”.  Love it.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is introducing legislation that would require the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in the wake of his damaging testimony last week. The legislation reads:

Resolved: That the Committee on the Judiciary shall investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach Alberto Gonzales for high crimes and misdemeanors.

My brother mentioned this a while ago, I found a video on it.  Apparantly Ford and Microsoft have teamed to create a seamless communications platform for mobile and music devices.  It’ll read you text messages, you can yell at it which track to play on your Zune or iPod…  Looks pretty cool.  Don’t know when I’ll ever own a Ford, but here’s a review nonetheless.

UPDATE: Ford said that it’ll be a mere $395 option.  Affordable indeed.

Several NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) report the condition of the Iraqi people.  The solution is, and has not been, American occupation.

About 8 million Iraqis — nearly a third of the population — need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies said Monday.

The report said 15 percent of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat, and 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003. It also said 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared with 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.

“Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people,” said Jeremy Hobbs, the director of Oxfam International. “Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty.”

The report said more than 2 million people — mostly women and children — have been displaced within Iraq, and 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan.

Notice how the “surge” has been working this month.  Notice also the number of Iraqi’s killed… more than half a million.  Take the number of US Soldiers killed in one month, and that’s the number of “terrorists” which are accounted for in that number.  The rest?  Just people who’d died for living there…  Compiled by DailyKos 

July 2007: 77 US Troop Casualties

July 2006: 46 US Troop Casualties

July 2005: 58 US Troop Casualties

July 2004: 58 US Troop Casualties

July 2003: 49 US Troop Casualties

655,000: Iraqi deaths a Johns-Hopkins study attributed to the war nine months ago.

2770: Iraqi civilians killed in May 2007, according to government reports. (Actual figure unknown because the Iraqi government refuses to share its data with outside agencies that could verify totals.)

1.9 million: Estimated Iraqis displaced within the country.

2.35 million: Estimated Iraqi exiles outside the country in January 2007.

18,000: Iraqi doctors who have fled the country since March 2003.

???: Iraqis orphaned by the war – no reliable statistics.

25%: Iraqi children who are malnourished (May 2006).

130,000: U.S. troops taking part in the invasion at Rumsfeld’s insistence.

500,000: U.S. troops estimated to be necessary by generals who put together a prewar contingency plan.

$60-$95 billion: Total cost of Iraq war and aftermath calculated by Paul Wolfowitz in February 2003.

$600 billion: Money Congress has allocated for direct costs of the war and occupation so far.

$750 billion: Total the Cheney-Bush Administration has sought for keeping the occupation going through September 2008.

$140,000: Estimated cost per minute of the war and occupation in 2007.

$2 trillion: Total direct and indirect costs of war and occupation (through 2010) calculated by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Blimes in January 2006.

$9 billion: Taxpayer money that disappeared in Iraq.

$549.7 million: Value of unaccounted for spare parts shipped to contractors in 2004.

$1.4 billion: Overcharges by Halliburton.

6,000-10,000: Estimated number of U.S. troops whose injuries have included brain trauma.

30%: Estimated percentage of troops who develop serious mental problems within three or four months after returning from Iraq.

14: Journalists killed by U.S. forces in Iraq.

112: Total number of journalists killed in Iraq.

1-2 a day: Hours of electricity available to the average residential household in Baghdad. (Actual figure unknown since U.S. no longer reports the electricity figures for the city.)

5000: “Diehard” insurgents the Pentagon estimated to be fighting on July 28, 2003.

20-30,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in October 2006.

70,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in March 2007.

69%: Iraqis who say U.S. presence worsens security situation (polled in March 2007).

71%: Iraqis who want U.S. troops out within a year (polled in September 2006).

71%: Americans who want U.S. to withdraw troops by April 2008 (polled in July 2007).

52%: U.S. Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

8%: Republican Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.

If you have kids or are bored at work (I was the later) Readymech has 20+ flatpack creatures that you can cut out, fold, tape and create.  All you need is a color printer and some tape and scissors.

Here’s a couple of the end results;

My latest art purchase is a couple of prints from Alex Pardee.  Alex was tapped by the band “The Used” to develop their album artwork and website a year or so ago.  Before you see the pictures… here’s a bit of a bio on him.

Alex Pardee’s unique style is one conceived through watching years of horror movies, writing graffiti, and listening to gangster rap. His work best represents that of avibrant undead circus sideshow. Final pieces are often brought to life by translating random shapes and colors into signs of torment and absurdity. By juxtaposing these two conflicting moods, Alex makes his works more personal to his viewers, forcing them to project their own feelings and emotions onto each character in his twisted universe.

After months of hospitalization and many futile attempts at seeking out professional help in his early teens, Alex finally overcame his battle with severe depression and anxiety through his own form of therapy: art. His love for drawing and painting spawned from his fascination with the grotesque images of Garbage Pail Kids and Tales from the Crypt comics. For years Alex used sketch drawing and graffiti as an emotional outlet. He started photocopying collections of his sketches and scattering them around the Bay Area. He began placing his homemade books between the pages of tattoo and porn magazines, in clinic waiting rooms, and in public bathrooms. With the help of street canvas and Kinkos, Alex was able to overcome his emotional setbacks and move forward in the world of artistic expression.

And so here’s the two signed prints I purchased…  Little macabre, but fun to look at.