Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Almost 2.5% of Iraqi Population Victims of “Excess Deaths” in Iraq Since Invasion

Posted on October 11, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Via Kevin Drum:

A team at Johns Hopkins has done another study of the post-invasion death rate in Iraq:

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

….Of the total 655,000 estimated “excess deaths,” 601,000 resulted from violence….Of the violent deaths that occurred after the invasion, 31 percent were caused by coalition forces or airstrikes, the respondents said.

The study has uncertainties, but the estimate is a mid-range one surrounded by fuzz on both sides. If it’s at all right, it’s a shocking number. Consider the context: The CIA estimates the Iraqi population at at 26.7 million. So I make that almost 2.5% of the population!

Think about that. Five out of every two hundred. One out of forty. That’s one person out of every full-sized major league baseball roster. As a war-related death. Not to mention the injuries.

Posted in Iraq | 1 Comment

Did Allen Get a Bum Rap on the Stock Options? No.

Posted on October 11, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Here’s the pro-George Allen take on the options issue.

Its main claims are (1) that the options were riding high before he was in the Senate, but near-zero by the time Allen took office; (2) that Allen’s assistance to the company that issued the options was pretty small stuff, quite routine; (3) Allen disclosed the options in his first filing, then relied on advice that there was no need to do so any more.

Compare these claims to the AP/Washington Post version of the facts:

Allen disclosed the options once _ on an amendment to his 2000 ethics report filed three months after the normal filing period ended. He excluded the options from subsequent reports.

When AP showed Allen’s lawyer the Senate ethics manual requirement that such options must be reported each year regardless of value, the lawyer said he was unfamiliar with that provision. Allen has now asked the Senate ethics committee for an opinion on whether he should have disclosed them.

So: Excuse #1 makes little sense: if the options are still alive, the holder has an interest in helping the company gain value to the point where they are in the money.

Excuse #2 is half right: What we know Allen did for the company on office time does in fact sound pretty routine. But the disclosure requirements don’t have an exception for just routine assistance. And in any case this wasn’t just some arms-length relationship, but a deep and complex financial relationship.

Excuse #3 is weird. If Allen had a blessing from the ethics committee staff why is he asking for an opinion now? And why would the staff give their blessing to what seems like a violation of the rules? And did Allen really think the company was dead beyond repair by 2001? It didn’t file for bankruptcy reorganization until July 2005. So see excuse #1…

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | Comments Off on Did Allen Get a Bum Rap on the Stock Options? No.

Olbermann on the Incredible Shrinking Bill of Rights

Posted on October 11, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Via Crooks & Liars: Olbermann: So heavy-handed. So necessary.

Of course, biting as this satire may be, it is all a bit late now. Even if Bush hasn’t actually signed the bill yet.

Incidentally, I understand that although the Military Commissions Act (aka The Torture Bill) was so essential to our freedom that it had to be rushed through both houses before the election…the Speaker and the President Pro Tem of the Senate only got around to delivering it to the White House today. As a result, the President will be able to delay signing it until Oct. 17th (real urgent, huh?) without the bill becoming subject to a pocket veto.

The reason for the delay in delivering the bill is that the White House wanted the signing ceremony for the 17th. Had it been sent over any earlier, that would have messed up the media strategy.

Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

Ned Lamont Uses Lieberman’s Own Words Against Him

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

This, on the other hand, is a pretty good ad:

This one is pretty good too, although not as good as Steele’s anti-scare tactics ad.

There’s something funny going on in Connecticut. The polls show Lieberman is ahead of Lamont — either a lot or some, but more than a little. But Lieberman is having some kind of personal meltdown. He’s running around contradicting himself in ways that are transparently obvious, trivially easy to show they are contradictory to what he said sometimes only days earlier. For example about Rumsfeld (total about face), about his position on the Hastert investigation. And then there’s his yukfest about torturing Democrats.

Is it panic? Denial? Contempt for the voter? I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do with this:

Posted in Politics: US: 2006 Election | 1 Comment

Jim Webb’s Latest Ad: Not as Good As I’d Wish

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Jim Web has a new ad today, half attack ad on Allen, quarter defense, quarter pander-positive.

It’s ok, but it’s not as good as I’d wish it to be. Too many messages, production values only get a B, and I can’t see it closing a sale. Not to mention there’s pretty little of the actual candidate in it and he looks like a waxy automaton.

Posted in Politics: US: 2006 Election | 1 Comment

100 Tortured Each Day in Iraq

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

It is of course a great faux pas in current political discourse to suggest that just maybe the Iraqi people are even worse off today than they were under Saddam.

I would guess that the Kurds may be better off (so far); my sense is that in many other parts of the country it’s not so clear at all given the physical destruction of a good chunk of several cities, the damage to the oil and electrical systems, the escalating casualties, the slide into civil war, the new enjoyment of civil liberties such as freedom of the press (not) and, now, news of widespread torture by the Iraqi government and others.

Time to dig out my Edwin Starr and my Bruce Springsteen. (Wikipedia suggests that “War” is one of the most popular protest songs ever recorded..)

Posted in Iraq, Torture | 3 Comments