Devastating facts

Here are some devastating facts from UNICEF. In the meantime, of course, billions upon billions of dollars go toward war.

There are 2.2 billion children in the world – 1.1 billion live in poverty.

30,000 children die every single day due to poverty. “Every year, 11 million children will die quietly, in some of the poorest villages on earth.”

Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name.

More than 253 million children – as young as 5 years old – work in child labor.

1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

One-half of the world’s population – 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day.

Senatorial Circus

I think our Senate must be the laughingstock of the world. There is the weeks-long obstruction of healthcare reform by every last Republican. There is the birther senator Coburn. And the deather senator Grassley. There is the global-warming denying senator Inhofe. (Poor Oklahoma! They've got two out of three here.)

Then there are those holy, theatrical praying senators. They surface time and again. Some of their praying has gone on behind the doors of the C Street house of "The Family" But much of it is very public.

The latest senatorial holy moment took place this week in Washington, more precisely in the Senate itself. Senator Coburn, back in the spotlight again, made a call to prayer -- prayer that some Senator would not make it to the roll call for 60 votes to end the Republican filibuster on health care reform. Of course Coburn had to be referring to 92-year-old Senator Byrd -- who nevertheless did arrive in his wheelchair in the middle of the night to enthusiastically vote for cloture.

People have long said that of the two chambers of Congress, the Senate is the more dignified one. Not for quite some time.

Arpaio the Mad

I once thought the saga of Maricopa County's racial-profiling sheriff Joe Arpaio could not get much worse. What a pipe dreamer I was!

On Saturday the L.A. Times did a good job of updating the Arpaio record. Some quotes:

* "The day after the federal government told...Arpaio that he could no longer use his deputies to round up suspected illegal immigrants on the street, the combative Arizona sheriff did just that. He launched one of his notorious 'sweeps,' in which his officers descend on heavily Latino neighborhoods, arrest hundreds of people for violations as minor as a busted headlight and ask them whether they are in the country legally."

* "For two decades, he has basked in publicity over his colorful tactics, such as dressing jail inmates in pink underwear and housing them in outdoor tents during the brutal Phoenix summers."

* In recent months he has been "launching repeated investigations of those who criticize him. He recently filed a racketeering lawsuit against the entire Maricopa County power structure."

* "Last year, when Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called for a federal investigation of Arpaio's immigration enforcement, the Sheriff's Office demanded to see Gordon's e-mails, phone logs and appointment calendars."

* "A local television station (has) documented two dozen instances of the sheriff launching investigations of critics, none of which led to convictions."

* "The most notorious case involves county Supervisor Don Stapley, a Republican who has sometimes disagreed with Arpaio's immigration tactics. Last December, deputies arrested Stapley on charges of failing to disclose business interests properly on his statement of economic interest."

* "A judge in September dismissed several of the allegations against Stapley, and prosecutors dropped the case. Three days later, Arpaio's deputies arrested Stapley again after he parked his car in a downtown parking structure near his office. No charges were filed until County Atty. Andrew Thomas -- Arpaio's ally in his fights with the supervisor -- charged Stapley this week with misusing money he raised to run for president of the National Assn. of Counties."

* "Arpaio, a Republican, is highly popular in Arizona. He won reelection last year with 55% of the vote in the state's most populous county."

* "The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into Arpaio's tactics. The sheriff has refused to cooperate and has called for an investigation of the investigators."

* "Arpaio... has become embroiled in a sometimes-surreal battle with the five county supervisors who oversee his budget. Amid the recession, they have cut the sheriff's budget by 12.2%. Arpaio and Thomas filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the county supervisors, administrators and several judges who have ruled against the two in prior cases... County officials noted that Arpaio and Thomas have sued them six times in efforts to regain power over their budgets -- and they lost every time."

* * * * *
I believe that Joe Arpaio is either a fascist or a lunatic. Or both. And what a miserable fact that his fear-mongering and xenophobic rants got him over half of the county votes in the last election.

After the Obama speech

Even though I was expecting President Obama to call for more troops for Afghanistan on Tuesday night, I still felt a huge wave of disappointment and frustration when he announced he was sending 30.000 more.

I won't repeat all of what I wrote in my Nov 26 blog: I'll just ask some questions:

* What does starting to bring troops home in mid-2011 really mean? How many out of 100,000?

* President Obama says comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam is “a false reading of history." Is it really?

* How much healthcare and education could be given to Afghanistan's children with the billions of dollars that are going to warfare?

* As Nicholas Kristof asked in the NY Times on Thursday, why has there not been consultation with Afghanistan's tribal elders (the Shura) ?

* How can Afghanistan govern itself when the Karzai government is so corrupt? .

* President Obama says this escalation is about "the security of the United States and the safety of the American people." But what about the security and safety of Americans whose health care is lacking, whose homes are being repossessed, whose children are being shortchanged in school or cannot get into college, whose bridges are rickety?

I repeat: hugely disappointing, hugely frustrating.