Category: Networks

This Darwin Awards nominee serves as a reminder not to go overboard with the plastic sheeting and duct tape:

NOMINEE No. 5: [Bloomberg News Service] A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body but an autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination of foods. It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed.

Had he been outside or had his windows been opened, it wouldn’t have been fatal. But the man was shut up in his near-airtight bedroom.

According to the article, “He was a big man with a huge capacity for creating “this deadly gas.” Three of the rescuers got sick, and one was hospitalized.

Kanan Makiya’s sentiments on the day of the liberation are worth remembering:

We thank you people of the great United States for the gift that you have bestowed on us. I cannot promise that we will succeed in making good of it. But I do promise that we will try very hard.

Makiya is one of the leaders of the Iraqi National Congress and a good all-around dude.

The Guardian reports:

1530 (All times are BST): The prime minister, Tony Blair, tells the Commons that “the bulk of Iraq is under coalition control, and the vast majority of Iraqis are rejoicing at Saddam’s departure”. He suggests elections could take place in around a year’s time, and adds that resistance to the coalition is now mainly from foreigners, not Iraqis.

and they quote one Iraqi man saying:

“It’s a huge relief, we think of ourselves as peaceful people who got stuck with a dictator. Hopefully we’ll get a leader who respects people and let’s them be in peace,” 58-year-old Hussein al-Khalidi told Reuters.

While The Sun speculates that Blair will use his popularity to push for Britain’s adoption of the Euro, and to make some changes in his cabinet:

Senior ministers face the axe as the jubilant Prime Minister stamps his authority after six years of uneasy alliance with the Left.

Clare Short, Margaret Beckett and even Deputy PM John Prescott risk the chop.

Can’t vouch for that, but back in Iraq the fighting is over:

WASHINGTON – Iraqi fighters have not mounted “a coherent defense” and major combat there is essentially over, an Army major general said Monday.

Big sigh of relief, and everlasting thanks to the troops.

Al Jazeera reports that order has returned to Baghdad:

After days of pillaging, lawlessness and anarchy a semblance of order appears to be returning to Iraq’s capital Baghdad.

Groups of concerned citizens and professional policemen combined with efforts by the US-led occupation forces have enabled near-normalcy in most parts of the capital. A night curfew on Baghdad imposed by the US-led forces helped stem the looting that has continued unhindered for four days since President Saddam Hussein’s military lost grip over the city.

and to Basra:

The chaotic, rampant looting that characterized the first few days of British control have largely subsided with the presence of armoured tanks and soldiers on city streets. At night, though, sporadic gunfire still ricochets through town.

Bad news all around for the scolds.

Link via BuzzMachine… by Jeff Jarvis

This has made the rounds, but in case you haven’t seen it, The Independent has a gruesome story on the prison where most of Saddam’s victims were slaughtered:

How many people fell through the trap-doors of Abu Ghurayb prison is a figure that will probably never be known. Thousands certainly — one former army officer who defected to the West said that 2,000 people were killed here in one night alone. But under Saddam’s rule, scores and possibly even hundreds of thousands of people may have met their deaths at the regime’s most notorious prison. Two hangman’s nooses lay on the floor, the loops of the waxed hemp rope wrapped in white bandages — presumably to prevent the rope from decapitating people.

For some perspective, Reuters’ last estimate on Iraqi civilian casualites is something less than 1300, which would be an off day for Saddam.

The Sunday Times (UK) reports on the looting of the Iraqi National Museum:

LOOTERS have ransacked the most important museum in Iraq, stealing and smashing antiquities that date back to the dawn of civilisation.

In the outbreak of lawlessness that has seized Baghdad, thieves have carted off treasures dating back 7,000 years on handcarts and in wheelbarrows.

Visitors to the Iraqi National Museum yesterday found themselves trampling over shards of broken pottery and glass from smashed display cabinets.

Staff blamed American forces for not protecting the museum. Nabhal Amin, the deputy director, wept as she claimed the thieves had looted or destroyed 170,000 items “worth billions of dollars”. Other sources suggested 10,000 items had been on display.

Some of the looting was well organised. At least a dozen thieves went through the ground-floor rooms undisturbed. They broke into rooms that are built like bank vaults with large steel doors.

Something could have been done to prevent this, and now we can only hope that some of these treasures can be recovered before they end up in Woodside and Marin County.

The pro-Saddam cynics who’ve been poo-pooing the US war plan for Iraq are taking big gulps now that cheering crowds ransack the remains of the torture regime in Baghdad. MSNBC reports:

Reuters journalists watched cheering crowds sack the U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel to the east of the city center. One witness saw looters ransack sports shops around the bombed Iraqi Olympic Committee building, the effective headquarters of Saddam’s elder son, Uday.

And CBS News adds:

In parts of Baghdad the power vacuum and chaos are a boon to some civilians. People are both celebrating and looting.

“Freedom! FFREEEEDOM, YES!” yelled an older Iraqi man.

ABC News chimes in:

Iraqis cheered arriving U.S. troops and then went on looting rampages as vestiges of President Saddam Hussein’s authority collapsed.

And Fox News says:

“Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush,” some of the looters shouted. One elderly man beat a portrait of Saddam with his show.

And CNN has the coup de grace:

But in the Baghdad suburb of Saddam City, residents took to the streets to celebrate the apparent end of the Iraqi regime. A Shiite Muslim leader told a group of 400 to 500 people, “The tyrant of the world is finished, thanks to the coalition. Thank God for Iraq the victorious.”

And just a few days ago, the anti-liberation crowd was talking about “fierce resistance”, “fighting to the last breath”, and “repelling foreign invaders”.

Not hardly, folks – it’s a party.

The truth is getting stranger and stranger. Not only do 2/3 of Bay Areans support the war, nationally the age group that supports it most strongly is none other than Vietnam-era Boomers, those of us with the most finely-tuned sense of justice. Ha.

The Pentagon announced today the formation of an elite military force called the “U. S. Redneck Special Forces.”

Bubba, Hoss, Cooter and Boo will be dropped behind enemy lines with the following information about the Fedayeen:
1. The season opened last weekend.
2. There is no limit.
3. They taste just like chicken.
4. The don’t like beer, pickups, country music, or Jesus.
5. Some is queer.
6. They’re directly responsible for the death of Dale Earnhardt.

The war should be over next week.

Thanks to brother Eric for the pitcher and text.

Yahoo! News – Jailed Iraqi children run free as marines roll into Baghdad suburbs

BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than 100 children held in a prison celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians loot weapons from an army compound, a US officer said.

Doing it for the children, the American way.