You Big Mouth, You!

Ian, from Astonished Head calls my attention to the following story. The press release from which some of it is derived is here.

SIFY News Some 60 per cent of all announced international aid does not exist, global pressure group ActionAid said on Thursday, singling out the United States and France as the main culprits in “phantom” aid. A “classic example” of real versus phantom aid is money pledged for victims of last year’s Asian tsunami disaster, John Samuel, Asia director of ActionAid International, told a news conference. He cited Australia, which he said had so far only managed to give seven per cent of the money it had pledged. He also named France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States as among other countries who have not delivered on their tsunami promises. “In 2003, total aid announced by developed countries was $65 billion of which $50 billion was (pledged) by the G7,” Samuel said. “How much money actually reached the receivers? Only $27 billion, or just 0.1 percent of the countries’ combined national income,” Samuel said, while releasing “RealAid”, a report on the status of global aid mechanisms. “For the United States and France, two of the world’s largest donors, almost 90 per cent of their contributions are phantom aid.” The activist said figures quoted in the report were based on official data of aid given and aid received apart from field studies. These had been vetted by top experts. “Over the last two years, most of the aid has been directed towards buying arms and ammunition,” Samuel said. “As we speak today, 30,000 children are dying of malnourishment and 800 million are going hungry. We demand accountability and transparency from the G8.” “Aid diversification for military purposes is being done by the donors, particularly the US, especially after 9/11,” he said. The G8 countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and new entrant Russia — are due to hold a summit from July 6 to 8 in Scotland. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also been invited to attend. In a recent decision, the group decided to write off total debts of 18 poor nations, a move which organisations like ActionAid say was due to their pressure tactics. Samuel said more than 3,00,000 people are expected to take part in a “white-band” protest in Edinburgh on July 2 as part of a “Make Poverty History” campaign.

You’ll note how aid for tsunami relief is conflated with foreign aid from 2003. In addition, the story is littered with “factoids” about the starvation and death, and the number of people who will show up at a planned protest.

Here’s a table, based on the numbers that ActionAid International uses in their press release. BTW, they don’t match other information, as you will see when you check out the cites.

COUNTRY	PLEDGE (mil $)	RECEIVED (mil $)	CITES
United States	$857.0	$140.4	USAID
Germany	$643.3	$96.5	Federal Government
Britain	$464.6	$450.7	High Commission
Australia	$738.9	$51.7	AusAID
Japan	$550.5	$550.5	Embassy of Japan
Netherlands	$308.8	$49.4
Canada	$341.1	$68.2	Govt of Canada
Norway	$175.7	$80.8	Govt of Norway

Look through the information at the cites. About half the pledged aid is dedicated ot reconstruction efforts over the next 3-5 years. Other portions are, in reality, loans and loan guarantees. What it all boils down to is that this group is moaning about not receiving money now, to be “spent” in five years. Kinda like giving your children their college fund when they enter ninth grade and expecting them to use it four years later for college. Yah, sher! You betcha!

And, of course, no where is it cited that the United States military spent over a quarter billion dollars through its support efforts in South Asia. $6 million per day for about 45 days.

DoD News Q Sir, I have a question for either one of you that would like to answer it in regards to the challenges that Recruiting Service and all the services are facing, some services more than others, in today’s environment. What can the Department of Defense do to help us do our job better? GEN. MYERS: I think a lot of it has been — we’re going through a list of good ideas. And let’s talk about recruiting and not retention, because I think as most people know, retention is very good in both active and reserve components. That’s not the issue. The issue is recruiting, and not particularly in your service, but in the Army and in the Army Reserve components. Bonuses. I think enlistment bonuses today, for the Army at least, range between $5,000 and $20,000 to enlist. Educational benefits for those eligible have gone from, I think, $50,000 to $70,000. So there are things being tried. Plus, I think all the services, if you combine them all — and the reserve components — have added thousands of recruiters, and you know that, and at least how it affects you in the Air Force. That’s part of what we can do. I think another part of what can be done is what the president of the United States did last night, our commander in chief. And he talked about the nobility of wearing this uniform and serving your country, and I think that’s an important message, and particularly when your nation is being challenged. So senior leaders need to talk out, not just our commander in chief, but all of us. And I think we try to do that. And we can do more. I think the moms and dads and aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers out there, and the brothers and sisters, need to understand and remind ourselves one more time, particularly as we approach the Fourth of July weekend, what we stand for in this country; that our freedoms are dear; that there’s always been people that are willing to stand up and defend those freedoms. And it’s as important today as it’s ever been, perhaps more important. And it’s a noble thing that we do.

WHAM TV 13 President George W. Bush arrived at the Greater Rochester International Airport at 10:15 a.m. Just a few minutes after the door opened on Air Force One, the president appeared by himself, waving to the crowd. He was met at the airport by various dignitaries including New York Governor George Pataki and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks. The president also presented George-Ann Schauffele with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for her work as a literacy volunteer.

WROC TV 8 Droves of Rochester area residents turned out in front of Greece Athena High School to both cheer and geer President George Bush as he arrived at the school to host a town meeting called “Conversation on Strengthening Social Security”. Just moments before the presidential motorcade arrived at the high school, two protesters were taken into custody. News 8 Now spoke with one of the protesters who said he was a professor at Nazareth College. The second protester is identified as Sister Grace Miller. Both were vocal against the war in Iraq. The protesters were arrested after they moved to an area in front of the high school’s main entrance which was prohibited by presidential secret service officers. While there were residents who simply showed up to support President Bush and see the motorcade go by, others were protesting not only the war in Iraq, Social Security reform, the President’s stance on gay marriage and the closing of military bases.

I will be attempting to cover the protests downtown, since I was unable to get a ticket. Look for a protest update later.

R News President George W. Bush will be in the town of Greece this morning to discuss his ideas for reforming the nation’s Social Security system. The president will speak at Greece Athena High School. It is the latest stop in a series of presidential visits across the country to pitch his plan to reform the system. Air Force One is expected to land at Greater Rochester International Airport around 10:30 a.m. From there, the president will travel to Greece Athena.

Democrat & Chronicle special report Supporters and opponents are abuzz about the first visit to Rochester from a sitting president since 1989 when Bush’s father, George H. W. Bush, came to town. In addition to the event itself, the topic of the day will include debate about Bush�s controversial plan to reform Social Security.

Democrat & Chronicle While some area families learned Monday that they would be joining President Bush on stage today during his appearance at Greece Athena High School, others were playing the waiting game. There was no leak from White House officials. Local politicians and Republican Party leaders said they could not say. And some people who were asked if they were interested were still sitting by the telephone Monday afternoon waiting for a call. “We keep calling each other saying, ‘Did you get it? Did you get it?’” said Jennafer Manetta, 28, owner of Roc City Hots on East Avenue. Tickets allowing lucky audience members inside to hear the president at the school were colored red, blue or gold. James Bock, 12, of Livonia, Livingston County, and five members of his family learned they had “golden” tickets, which mean they’ll sit on stage with the president.

White House Social Security site

I’m so very sorry you’re such a Dick.

I can now reveal:

I was interviewed by a reporter with Reuters, in London, on Monday of this week. This followed several e-mails from their Washington Bureau.

They were researching a story about tsunami aid on the sixth month anniversary, and they had come across The Stingy List [PDF file}. Here is the portion of the report about me. Yahoo link, which shall vanish like the wind at some point.

Reuters via Yahoo

By Tim Large

LONDON (Reuters) - In the weeks following the Asian tsunami, Chuck Simmons squirreled himself away in his home in Rochester, New York, scouring the Internet for any scrap of evidence to document American generosity after the disaster.

From corporate fundraisers to Salvation Army “kettle campaigns,” he spent more than 100 hours tallying up almost 1,000 private donations for “The Stingy List,” an online aid ledger published on his personal blog (http:/blog.simmins.org).

“I stopped updating the list when American private contributions exceeded a billion dollars,” Simmons, a 49-year-old businessman, said in a telephone interview.

“It was created to make a point, that we weren’t as stingy as some portrayed us.”

Six months after killer waves roared across the Indian Ocean, sensitivities still run high about the true generosity of rich countries, despite an unprecedented outpouring of aid in the weeks following the Dec. 26 tragedy.

Aid pledges by governments and multilateral organizations total around $6.9 billion, according to Reuters research.

Add to that at least $4.5 billion of private donations to aid organizations by individuals, companies, foundations and religious groups, and you have the biggest display of generosity after any natural disaster in history.

HOW GENEROUS REALLY?

Simmons started his “Stingy List” in January after U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland made comments many interpreted as accusing Washington of being miserly. At the time, the U.S. government had given $15 million plus military support costing about $6 million a day.

“Jan Egeland basically opened an incredible Pandora’s box by accusing the U.S. of being stingy,” said Joel Charny, vice president of advocacy group Refugees International.

“We then had this maniacal race to see who could be the most generous. And it got to the point where agencies and countries were just throwing money on top of money on top of money.”

For more information about this project, use the site search function on the right sidebar.

As you may recall, when President Bush visited Rochester a few weeks ago, there were protests. Two protestors at the site of the visit were arrested. One was Grace Miller, long-time activist and member of the religious order, the Sisters of Mercy. The other was Dr. Harry Murray, a professor of Sociology at Nazareth College. The local Gannett outlet, the Democrat & Chronicle, printed an op-ed by Dr. Murray. It is, unfortunately, now hidden behind a wall of “pay for it archives”. Here is the teaser:

As the “other person” arrested with Sister Grace Miller during President Bush’s visit to Greece, I would like to reflect on some of the issues raised by writers of the June 2 letter “Law should get tough on Sister Grace Miller.” The letter writers raise an important issue when they address how our actions affect children, particularly in the context of Catholic teaching on morality. Although Catholic teaching does encourage respect

He went on to offhandedly compare the protestors’ actions to those of Jesus when he cleansed the Temple. And so on.

I wrote a response, and it was published today as a letter to the editor. They limit letters to about 170 words, though I had far more to say. Here is my response:

The June 7 essay “When America engages in unjust war, conscience must overrule law,” by Harry Murray, is an exercise in self-justification, couched in a wrapper of “it’s for the children.” He continues on to make a series of claims, unsupported by the actual facts.

Pope John Paul II never called the liberation of Iraq an “unjust war.” Never.

The Bush administration has gone out of its way to deny, repeatedly, that the Iraqi thugocracy had any connection to the murders of Sept. 11, 2001. The connection of Saddam’s regime to terrorists worldwide, including the bombers of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the murderer of American citizen Leon Klinghoffer is, however, undeniable.

The biggest distortion of all is that the administration lied about weapons of mass destruction. From the end of the war that freed Kuwait from Saddam’s aggression until the present, no one has accounted for the tons of weapons of mass destruction materials that Saddam failed to produce for destruction as required by the United Nations. Every report from the United Nations and from the American search teams spells out in detail how Saddam’s thugs schemed to hide their continuing illegal activities in this respect.

These are complex issues, and the children should be exposed to them. But we should begin with accurate information, not disproven distortions.

Googling Dr. Murray reveals that he has written on the issue of just war extensively. I shall not attempt to debate him on this topic, since he has done far more work on it than I ever care to. However, any attempt to analyze the current Iraq war must begin with the facts, and the facts begin with Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991. The actions of the United States and its allies in March 2003 did not spring from someone’s imagination, they were part and parcel of a process that had gone on for a dozen years. That process had as its beginning the manifestly unjust war of aggression made by Saddam on the nation and people of Kuwait. The process included many, many resolutions by the United Nations Security Council that Saddam disregarded, and repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement that ended the fighting in 1991.

Saddam is a truly evil man. It has been indisputably documented that he and his thugs are among the greediest and cruelest rulers of modern times. They ran Iraq as a criminal enterprise, not as a nation, and the Iraqi people suffered for two generations because of that. If there were to be a biblical allusion to be made, removing Saddam and his gang from power would certainly deserve a comparison to the acts of Jesus far more than would those of two people lying down in the driveway of a school before the President of the United States arrived.

PG’s Christmas present was a portrait session. We finally got the time to do it this morning. I’ll be posting more, after she reviews them, but this should give you an idea:

So Tom proposed to Katie in Paris. And the world knew about it thirty seconds later. Can you say “Publicity Stunt”? I knew you could.

Dick Durbin is a turd.

Life sucks. That’s just the way it is.

Abortion and teens. Let me just say this. If a fourteen year old girl can’t get her ears pierced without permission, howcome she can get an abortion? And howcome the men who impregnate fourteen year old girls aren’t sent to prision for statuatory rape?

The previous does not apply to Katie and Tom.

I think.

You know, I had some deep thoughts when I got up this morning, and now they’re gone. I guess the scotch last night got to that brain cell.

Attention residents of California: These earthquakes are a reminder. There is a bigger one due. I’m just saying.

I guess I’m not the only one who feels that the members of Congress don’t earn their pay. Now, do something in the voting booth about it, ok?

Twelve hours of ambulance duty tomorrow. PG as my medic for most of it but she has to fill baskets for the hungry elderly for three hours mid-day. What about me? I turn 50 at the end of July and I’m hungry. I wanna be a basket case, too!

On March 25 I posted an article titled Iraq: Amazing News From Combat. In it I told the story of a small group of Kentucky National Guard troops who were ambushed by a vastly superior force in Iraq, and their incredible response to the attack.

Well, the reports have gone up the chain of command, and Raven 42 has been recognized for its heroics. Castle Argghhh has the awards, and they are impressive.

The team leader who helped clear the trench of enemy has been awarded the Silver Star. Unusual? Not really. Oh, wait, yes it is. That team leader is Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, the first woman to win a Silver Star since World War Two.

DefenseLINK

When the fight was over, 27 insurgents were dead, six were wounded, and one was captured.

Hester, 23, who was born in Bowling Green, Ky., and later moved to Nashville, Tenn., said she was surprised when she heard she was being considered for the Silver Star.

“I’m honored to even be considered, much less awarded, the medal,” she said. Being the first woman soldier since World War II to receive the medal is significant to Hester. But, she said, she doesn’t dwell on the fact. “It really doesn’t have anything to do with being a female,” she said. “It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”

Hester, who has been in the National Guard since April 2001, said she didn’t have time to be scared when the fight started, and she didn’t realize the impact of what had happened until much later. “Your training kicks in and the soldier kicks in,” she said. “It’s your life or theirs. … You’ve got a job to do — protecting yourself and your fellow comrades.”

Nein, who is on his second deployment to Iraq, praised Hester and his other soldiers for their actions that day. “It’s due to their dedication and their ability to stay there and back me up that we were able to do what we did that day,” he said.

Hester and her fellow soldiers were awarded their medals at Camp Liberty, Iraq, by Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, Multinational Corps Iraq commanding general. In his speech, Vines commended the soldiers for their bravery and their contribution to the international war on terror. “My heroes don’t play in the (National Basketball Association) and don’t play in the U.S. Open (golf tournament) at Pinehurst,” Vines said. “They’re standing in front of me today. These are American heroes.”

Three soldiers of the 617th were wounded in the ambush. Hester said she and the other squad members are thinking about them, and she is very thankful to have made it through unscathed. The firefight, along with the entire deployment, has had a lasting effect on her, Hester said. “I think about it every day, and probably will for t

he rest of my life,” she said.

Stars and Stripes

By Jessica Inigo, Stars and Stripes

It was only supposed to be a mission to deliver a tire to an MP patrol that had come under heavy fire along Alternate Supply Route Sword near Baghdad.

But Staff Sgt. Serena Maren Di Virgilio�s convoy drove right into an ambush.

Their three-truck convoy had been hit with a rocket- propelled grenade.

�I heard myself screaming, but I couldn�t hear anything else,� Di Virgilio said as she looked away, as if watching a scene from the movie of her life. �Everything was black, and there was smoke everywhere. I�ll never forget that smell.�

And even though the medic from the Headquarters, 230th Military Police Company, was covered with shrapnel wounds, she took care of every soldier in her unit before caring for herself.

She focused much of her attention on the gunner of her truck, Spc. Jonathan Kephart, 21, who had shrapnel lodged in his brain. She stabilized Kephart up until the last minute before placing him in a medical evacuation helicopter.

�I feel a lot of guilt for the fact that he died,� Di Virgilio said with a thick voice, as tears filled her light blue eyes.

This is one of the first times she has spoken of the ambush, which took place on April 8, 2003.

Di Virgilio said she was just doing her job. Others call her a hero.

Though at first the 31-year-old from Colorado said her memory of the ambush was fuzzy, the details came flooding back as she relived the day in her mind.

The Iraqis hit the convoy with everything they had once the troops hit the end of one stretch of road.

A string of bombs on the road blocked the troops from going any further, forcing them to turn around and head back into ambush. That�s when Di Virgilio�s truck was rocked by the RPG.

�Kephart was hit. I saw through the smoke, behind the team, that Kephart had fallen back against the cooler, his legs up by the radio. I could only see him from the waist up and then just his legs. He was staring right at me.�

Kephart�s fading eyes locked on Di Virgilio as the medic in her took over. She said the hundreds of Iraqis who had lined up behind berms along either side of the road disappeared. She could no longer hear the whiz of bullets flying by. The explosions no longer mattered. All that mattered was keeping Kephart alive.

While she worked, Iraqis drove alongside the Army trucks to shoot point blank at the troops.

Slowly, the disabled Army trucks made it out of the kill zone.

�She did the medic thing, but she was unbelievably level-headed through it all,� said Master Sgt. Edwin Rossman, who was the fourth platoon sergeant during the ambush. �She went beyond the work of a medic, helping with weapons and ammo at the start of the ambush.�

Di Virgilio � who is the single mother of 10-year-old Taylor Potts � said the real heroes are Sgt. Amy Kovac, who drove the truck out of the ambush, or Staff Sgt. Stephen Mandernach, who took over duties as gunner once Kephart was down.

But it was Di Virgilio who received the Bronze Star with �V� device. She also has earned a Purple Heart and a Combat Medic Badge.

And the horror of that day hasn�t changed Di Virgilio�s view of the Army: Before leaving Iraq, she re-enlisted.

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