Tag: 4@4

Afternoon news and not closed thread.

1. Just in time for the 2008 presidential election, The New York Times triumphantly announces Relations Improve With a Shift in War Coverage For Pentagon and News Media! “The anguished relationship between the military and the news media appears to be on the mend as battlefield successes from the troop increase in Iraq are reflected in more upbeat news coverage… At the start of the Iraq war, decades of open hostilities between the military and news media dating from Vietnam were forgotten, if only for a brief and shining moment. One reason was the embed program for the Iraq invasion that placed hundreds of reporters from across the journalistic spectrum into combat units.” Great… because what American needs is more love between the press and Defense War Department.

   The Independent obviously hasn’t gotten the memo. The newspaper reports Iraq death rate belies US claims of success. “The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop ‘surge’ has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country.”

   The Iraq Body Count (IBC) “found that between 22,586 and 24,159 civilian deaths were documented for 2007, with the vast majority of those killed between January and August… John Sloboda, the co-founder of IBC, said the figures “show beyond any doubt that civil security in Iraq remains in a parlous state… For some 24,000 Iraqi civilians, and their families and friends, 2007 was a year of devastating and irreparable tragedy”.

2. Meanwhile, all the cool newspapers are reporting a “confrontation“, as the NY Times puts it, between U.S. and Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The Guardian reports “According to Pentagon officials, US forces were about to fire at the boats, thought to be from the Revolutionary Guard, when the Iranians turned away at the last moment… The Iranian foreign ministry dismissed the confrontation as ‘something normal‘ that was resolved without incident.” The anonymous Pentagon officials, however, described the encounter as “significant” and “the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet”. Spin Cheney! Spin!

3. But, then Bush’s handlers have been always about lowering the bar and minimizing expectations. McClatchy Newspapers are reporting that Expectations are low for Bush’s Mideast trip. “President Bush, who once had grand ambitions to transform the Middle East through democratic reform, begins his first extended presidential visit to the region Tuesday with his sights lowered and his ability to influence events fading fast… The official Arab view of Bush was summed up inadvertently by a diplomat from a major Arab state, who indicated disbelief that the president will use the trip to renew his drive for Middle East democracy. ‘Is that still on?‘ the Arab official replied sarcastically. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.” And just for the curious, The Guardian adds More than 10,000 police will guard Bush during his Israel visit.

4. Finally, news from the road to the White House. The Los Angeles Times reports Supreme Court will hear voter ID case. Their ruling “could affect the outcome in some close contests this year and well into the future. At issue is whether states may require voters to show a driver’s license or a passport at their polling places.

   Republicans say photo IDs are needed to prevent vote fraud by, for example, having ballots cast in the names of the dead or by those who are not legal voters, such as felons, noncitizens or nonresidents…

   Democrats counter that the photo ID rules are a Republican-driven scheme whose real purpose is to deter voting by racial minorities, the poor and the elderly. They say that new voters are checked for eligibility when they register, and that there is no need for a photo ID check at the polling place…

   And a surprisingly large number of legally registered voters could run afoul of a photo ID requirement. About 10% of the nation’s voting-age citizens — more than 20 million people — do not have a driver’s license or passport, according to studies and phone surveys presented to the high court.

   Nothing like disenfranchising 10 percent of the electorate to rig a close election.

Talking Heads below the fold.

News and open thread.

1. From the Washington Post, a story about one soldier’s death in Iraq in A drunken night in Iraq, a soldier is left behind.

   Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney was 20 years old, the brown-eyed mother of a toddler son, when she was spotted in the headlights of a passing Humvee on a perimeter road at one of the largest U.S. military camps in Iraq.

   Thirteen hours later, in Redlands, Calif., Barbie and Matt Heavrin, who had three children in the military, learned they had lost their elder daughter to ‘injuries suffered when she was struck by a vehicle,’ as the Army first described it…

   Her case would become one in a litany of noncombat deaths in Iraq, which number more than 700, from crashes, suicides, illnesses and accidents that sometimes reveal messy truths about life in the war zone…

   Her parents want her story to be fully told. They cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that, on that terrible day in Taji, their daughter was left behind…

   Barbie Heavrin took McKinney’s son, Todd, not yet 2, to her coffin to bid goodbye.

   “Mama sleep?” the boy asked, patting her forehead.

   Follow the link to the WaPo story above to read about one soldier’s life and death in a war zone. Mr. Bush’s war is destroying our troops.

2. The New York Times reports At Huckabee central, cheers for Evangelical base. “Mr. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, rode a crest of evangelical Christian support to victory… A poll of people entering the Republican caucuses on Thursday showed more than 8 in 10 of his supporters identified themselves as evangelicals. The same surveys showed extraordinary turnout among evangelicals, who represented some 60 percent of Republican caucusgoers. In years past, Republican Party leaders in Iowa put evangelical turnout at about 40 percent.” Iowa takes America one step closer to becoming the Republic of Gilead.

3. Are we in a recession yet? The Guardian reports US jobless figures up as economy suffers severe downturn. “Unemployment in the US rose to its highest level in more than two years last month as the job-creation machine in the world’s biggest economy virtually ground to a halt… The Labor Department… said the jobless rate rose from 4.7% to 5% in December… Employers added a mere 18,000 jobs last month – the weakest performance by non-farm payrolls since 2003, when the economy was starting to recover from the short-lived recession that followed the collapse of the dotcom bubble.” The news also sent the dollar and share prices down.

4. More news from Rep. Jane “too little, too late” Harman… according to the Washington Post, Harman knew the CIA in 2003 planned destruction of tapes. “Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) released a declassified copy of a letter she secretly wrote to the CIA in February 2003, in which she quoted then-CIA General Counsel Scott W. Muller as telling her a tape of the agency’s interrogation of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida, ‘will be destroyed after the Inspector General finishes his inquiry’… She urged Muller to ‘reconsider’ that plan and predicted that the tapes’ destruction ‘would reflect badly on the agency’… Harman said she never received a direct reply to her advice that destroying the tapes would be a mistake.” And, evidently she didn’t follow-up on her letter, nor did she make her knowledge public until too late. Marcy Winograd, it’s time for another primary in CA-36.

Some news and open thread.

1. The violence going on in Kenya is too horrible for words. After the presidential election, the opposition supporters accused the ruling party of stealing the vote. The Los Angeles Times surmises the Kenyan election thusly:

   President Mwai Kibaki’s electoral victory, seen by the opposition as fraudulent, triggered days of ugly tribal violence from western Kenya to the coast. Mobs of opposition supporters have attacked Kibaki’s fellow Kikuyus, burned houses, looted shops, hacked people’s heads off or slashed them with machetes. Tribal fighting has raged around Eldoret and in some slum areas of Nairobi, the capital.

   Yesterday, The Guardian reported that the European Union observers condemned the Kenyan election and called for investigation. “European Union observers issued a damning report on Kenya’s presidential poll yesterday, saying it had ‘fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections’ and calling for a swift, independent investigation of the results. President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the election on Sunday evening, despite trailing opposition leader Raila Odinga in all the opinion polls and early counts after Thursday’s ballot.

   While Kenya is not Rwanda, I believe the ethnically motivated killings are genocide. One of the more horrific accounts of violence comes from the town of Kiambaa. According to The Guardian, over the New Year, 50 children were murdered as they sough sanctuary in a church. The children and their mothers, a total of about 200 Kikuyus, “were sheltering from outbursts of ethnic violence”. Where Kalenjin youths armed with bows and arrows and machetes killed the men and then attacked the women and children. After they fled to the church, “mattresses soaked with paraffin were pushed through the windows and used to block the door. Matches were thrown in.” As the church burned, the Kikuyu women and children fled only to be killed by the waiting Kalenjin youth.

   Today, BBC News reports President Kibaki ‘open to opposition talks’.

   President Mwai Kibaki has broken his silence over the unrest gripping Kenya by making a televised appeal for calm. Mr Kibaki said that once the violence ended he would be prepared to speak to the opposition, who claim he was wrongly credited with election victory.

   Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako has called for an independent investigation into the 27 December poll result.

   More than 300 people have been killed and some 70,000 displaced since Sunday amid claims that the vote was rigged.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with stories about $200/barrel oil, drilling for oil in the last of the polar bears’ range, California suing the EPA, and the undecided Iowa Democratic caucus goers. Please follow the link and comment or something…

N.A.O.T.

1. Awesome news oil users! According to the Canadian Press, Iraq increases oil exports in 2007, expects higher production in 2008. “Iraq’s oil exports shot up in the last quarter of 2007… the exports, about 1.6 million barrels a day… had grossed a total of US$4.94 billion in November, which made up more than 90 per cent of Iraq’s revenues.” The New York Times notes Oil hits $100 a barrel for the first time. “Oil prices reached the symbolic level of $100 a barrel for the first time… Oil prices… have quadrupled since 2003.” Mission Accomplished!

   Meanwhile, the NY Times also reports that 30 people are dead in Baghdad’s worst attack in months. “A suicide bomber strode into a gathering of mourners at a home in eastern Baghdad and detonated an explosives-packed vest… The force of the blast scattered severed arms and legs about the site of the attack, a house where scores of friends and relatives had gathered to pay tribute to a man killed three days earlier by a car bomb in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad.” And another attack is reported on by the NY Times, Female bomber attacks pro-American Iraqis. “For the second time in three days, a woman detonated an explosive vest on Wednesday amid a group of armed Sunni tribesmen… killing at least seven people, including a tribal chief known as Abu Sajad, a leader of the local Awakening Council, and injuring 22 others.”

2. Well at least there’s Iowa. According to the Los Angeles Times, Republican base scatters to rival camps. “The long-standing coalition of social, economic and national security conservatives that elevated the Republican Party to political dominance has become so splintered by the presidential primary campaign that some party leaders fear a protracted nomination fight that could hobble the eventual nominee… That instability has fueled fears that if a winner does not quickly emerge in a primary calendar loaded with contests in January and early February, a prolonged primary fight could delay the GOP’s focus on election day in a campaign in which Democratic voters already have contributed more money and, according to several polls, expressed greater satisfaction with their choice of presidential contenders.” And what could help the Republicans? “Republicans argue that in the end, Clinton may prove the great unifier of the GOP. If she wins the Democratic nomination, they say, Republicans of all stripes will rally in their shared loathing of her.”

3. The good people of St. Paul and Minneapolis are already taking to the streets to protest the Republican National Convention, according to the Associated Press. “A few dozen anti-war protesters marched Wednesday from the state Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center, hoping it will guarantee them to chance to hold a demonstration along the same route during the Republican National Convention in September… They contend a St. Paul ordinance allows permits for recurring events to be considered and granted outside the six-month permit window used to assess single demonstrations. But the lead St. Paul police official warned that it’s not so clear cut… St. Paul police authorized the January event, but only conditionally approved the marches through July.”

4. Lastly, a big hello to the NSA and all the other government agencies that could be sniffing this post. The Associated Press reports United States near bottom of global privacy index.

   Individual privacy is under threat around the world as governments continue introducing surveillance and information-gathering measures, according to an international rights group.

   “The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country,” said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, which released a study on the issue Saturday. “Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire.” …

   Malaysia, Russia and China ranked worst, but Great Britain and the United States also fell into the lowest-performing group of “endemic surveillance societies.” …

   U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration has come under fire for monitoring – without warrants – international phone calls and e-mails involving people suspected of having terrorist links. Davies said little had changed since Democrats took control of Congress a year ago.

   Here is the 2007 International Privacy Ranking. Hat tip Turkana @ The Left Coast… I hope you post that essay more widely.

Some news and open thread.

1. The Guardian reports Past failures are a recipe for success for Hillary, says Bill. “Failure is not usually an attribute used to sell American presidents, but that is how Bill Clinton is pitching his wife to Iowa’s voters in the final days before the state caucuses. Hillary Clinton has a crucial quality for an occupant of the White House, the former president argues: the strength to carry on after getting it wrong. ‘You need to know how a president deals with failure,’ he told a packed fairground hall in this town south-west of Des Moines.” If American wanted a failure, they’d find a way to re-elect Bush.

2. According to the Des Moines Register, Edwards, wife crackle over remark by Obama’s wife. Okay, first off… crackle? “John Edwards gave a long, passionate response Monday to rivals’ claims that if he becomes the Democrats’ presidential nominee, he would be financially handcuffed because he agreed to federal campaign spending limits that will last throughout the primaries. ‘It scares them to death, because what they know is, what this candidate and this campaign stands for is working,’ he said. ‘Can I ask you a question? If they have more money, and money’s what matters, then why are they worrying about me?’ … ‘When you’re resorting to arguments about how much money somebody has, you’re in a bad place,’ he said. “Because you’re not saying, ‘He’s wrong on this issue, or he’s wrong on that issue. And he’s not a good candidate.’ They’re not saying any of that. They’re saying, ‘But we have more money.” Obama aides have been telling reporters that Edwards’ decision to accept spending caps would cripple him if he became the nominee.”

3. The New York Times reports Outside groups spend heavily and visibly to sway ’08 races. “Spurred by a recent Supreme Court decision, independent political groups are using their financial muscle and organizational clout as never before to influence the presidential race, pumping money and troops into early nominating states on behalf of their favored candidates… The groups are prohibited from coordinating their efforts with the campaigns… Unlike national political parties and their candidates, many of these interest groups face no limits on how much they can take in from their contributors and often do not have to disclose their donors’ names until after an election… Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the only leading Democrat who has not attracted support from any of these groups in Iowa.”

4. The Portland Tribune wonders if Oregon largest city’s three steam locomotives are Running out of steam? “The Brooklyn Roundhouse – is almost completely filled with three huge steam locomotives… Two of the engines have been completely restored and still run – The Southern Pacific 4449 and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700… Perhaps most amazing of all, over the past half-century they have cost city taxpayers practically nothing. All of the work on the locomotives has been done by a small, dedicated group of volunteers that has raised its own funds from private sources. And the Union Pacific Corp., which owns the roundhouse, has been leasing it to the city for $1 a month… Now, however, the locomotives are at a crossroads. The Union Pacific wants the roundhouse property to expand its future freight operations, perhaps within a few months.

Below the fold is a story about the Navy awaiting a court ruling on its use of cetacean-killing sonar.

News and afternoon open thread.

1. Headline news in Britain, not so much in the U.S.A. The Guardian reports, 2007 is America’s deadliest year in Iraq.

   This year has been the most deadly for American troops in Iraq since the invasion nearly five years ago, US military figures out today show.

   Deaths peaked in May when 126 American soldiers died in coalition assaults on insurgent strongholds… The 899 American troop deaths in 2007 surpassed 2004 when 850 US soldiers were killed.

   The US military deaths are dwarfed by Iraqi civilian casualties… Over the year, 18,610 Iraqis were killed. In 2006, the only other full year an AP count has been made, 13,813 civilians were killed.

2. The Washington Post reports 32 K Street lobbyists are aiding John McCain. “McCain aides bridle at the notion that the senator, who has consistently fought in the Senate against so-called pork-barrel spending from such interests and championed laws to restrict their lobbying and political donations, might favor his big contributors… McCain has more lobbyists raising funds for his presidential bid than do any of his rivals. He has 32 “bundlers” of donations who are lobbyists. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) is the closest to him with 29 lobbyist bundlers, followed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with 18. McCain’s campaign has also been guided by lobbyists.” Maverick!

3. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Sub-prime mortgage mess takes a bite out of states and cities. “Dozens of states, counties and cities across the nation will enter the new year facing deep and unexpected budget holes as the widening mortgage crisis cuts sharply into tax revenue… The effects of the housing slowdown are not being felt evenly across the nation… The 10 most affected states, including California, Nevada and Arizona, will lose a combined $6.6 billion in tax revenue next year, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors… The fallout has been most severe in California, where officials are grappling with a $14-billion gap.”

4. The death of the public library may have been a bit premature. Reuters reports a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found Generation Y biggest user of U.S. libraries. “More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books… Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y… Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.”

Some news and open thread.

1. The Hill reports Bush threatens to veto fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill “because of a provision dealing with Iraqi assets held in the U.S… In a statement, the White House singled out language in the bill that would allow the lawyers for plaintiffs who had sued the former Saddam Hussein regime to freeze Iraqi funds in U.S. banks.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a joint statement: “We understand that the President is bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks if this bill is signed… The administration should have raised its objections earlier, when this issue would have been addressed without a veto.”

2. According to The Guardian, Global warming brings busy year for UN disaster teams. “The United Nations office that sends expert teams around the world to help governments deal with natural disasters was busier than ever in Latin America this year, a fact it at least partially blames on climate change. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in a statement that a record nine missions were dispatched to the region during 2007, among 14 sent around the globe, itself a higher than usual number. Of the 14 global missions, 70% were in response to hurricanes and floods, the OCHA statement said, calling this ‘possibly a glimpse of the shape of things to come given the reality of climate change.'”

3. The New York Times reports Military newspaper challenges Defense Department. “Top editors at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are asking for full disclosure of the paper’s relationship with a Department of Defense publicity program, called America Supports You, after disclosures that money for the program was funneled through the newspaper.” The inspector general of the Defense Department is investigating the America Supports You program. “Perception of objectivity has always been a thorny issue for the editorial staff because the paper is supposed to be free from government censorship – but is owned and partly financed by the government. By statute, the newspaper is guaranteed editorial independence.”

4. The editors at AlterNet have compiled their list of Top Ten Tales of War and Empire for 2007. “2007 was an incredibly frustrating year for opponents of the seemingly endless ‘War on Terror,’ and all that it is used to justify.” Check it out. There are some interesting stories and opinions you may have missed.

In addition to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto near Islamabad, Pakistan, here’s some other news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. With the Iowa caucus just a week away, Reuters notes the obvious: U.S. presidential contenders scour Iowa for votes. While CNN predicts Edwards and McCain are positioned to shake up race. While, the Tribune’s Washington bureau notes that big white hunter Huckabee has a muzzle control problem. Out hunting pheasants, “at one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.” Huckabee is using the Cheney method.

   Meanwhile, Ghouliani is battling poll shrinkage and is going big and playing his 9/11 card. The Boston Globe reports Giuliani ad links World War II to 9/11. “The 60-second spot mixes video of Giuliani speaking and then speaking over images of American soldiers and homefront workers during the war and then firefighters at Ground Zero in New York. One is the famous photo of Marines planting the US flag on Iwo Jima and another of the flag raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center.”

   Disgusting and offensive, but he is not stopping there. Desperately trying to regain relevancy in the Republican primary, Giuliani was first to pounce on the Bhutto Assassination. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post writes, “The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was only minutes old and details remained sketchy when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign issued a condemnation of terrorism writ large… Bhutto’s assassination could well work to Giuliani’s benefit because it may enable him to thrust himself back into the daily political conversation after steadily losing ground in the presidential campaign for weeks.”

2. The Miami Herald reports Colombian hostage handover in the works. “Relatives of hostages held captive for more than five years by Colombian leftist rebels Thursday packed their bags to travel to neighboring Venezuela hoping to be reunited with their loved ones, while Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez prepared to send planes and helicopters to pick up the three hostages… A senior Venezuelan diplomat, Rodolfo Sánz, said that the handover would happen between Friday and Sunday… The release would also be a major diplomatic coup for Chávez, who has emerged as a key figure in the liberation process even after he was told by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to stay out of hostage negotiations a month ago.”

3. The murders of musicians in Mexico continues. The Washington Post reports on The savage silencing of Mexico’s musicians. “Sergio Gómez, 34, was the latest of a dozen pop musicians to have been killed in the past year in Mexico. Nearly every one of the slayings bore the hallmarks of the drug cartel hitmen blamed for 4,000 deaths in the country in the past two years. But the savage murder of Sergio Gómez — one of Mexico’s hottest singers, a headliner whose band, K-Paz de la Sierra, commanded $100,000 a show, twice the rate of other top bands — was different. It has set off an unprecedented chain reaction in which at least half a dozen bands have canceled concert tours… Among music industry insiders, Sergio Gómez’s death and the previous killings are also forcing a quiet assessment of the influence drug trafficking kingpins wield over the business.”

4. While people were distracted by Santa and the North Pole, The Guardian reports that at the South Pole, two Antarctic base staff evacuated after Christmas brawl. “Two men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic’s most remote research facility after an incident described as a ‘drunken Christmas punch-up’. The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent… The injured man is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services, one of America’s largest defence contractors.” Defense contractors are everywhere!

Some news and open thread.

1. The New York Times reports House prices fall for 10th straight month. “The decline in home prices accelerated and spread to more regions of the country in October… Prices fell 6.1 percent from October 2006 in 20 large metropolitan areas, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller indexes, compared with a 4.9 percent decline in September. All but three of the 20 regions saw real estate values fall, and even the three places – Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Charlotte, N.C. – where prices were up from a year ago saw prices fall from a month earlier. The quickening decline in home prices could hurt the broader economy by leading to more foreclosures as homeowners have more difficulty refinancing mortgages and by sapping consumer spending as Americans feel less wealthy. But economists also noted that a faster descent from boom-era prices would allow the housing market to right itself sooner by removing vacant homes from the market.”

2. According to the Los Angeles Times, Students seek to build memorial to Bruce Lee. Courtney Ioane and “20 other University of Washington students have collected more than 1,000 signatures — including from nearly all members of the men’s and women’s basketball teams — as part of the effort to build a monument to Lee. She said the statue would help represent the campus’ diversity, something that is absent in the school’s collection of public art. Nearly all of the several dozen statues and busts on the sprawling 700-acre campus are of white men, including the school’s namesake, George Washington. Of the school’s 28,570 undergraduates, more than 35% are minorities… Lee was born in San Francisco and grew up in Hong Kong… [and] is buried in Seattle.”

3. Reuters reports that Iran to get missile system from Russia. According to Iran’s defense minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, “Russia has agreed to sell an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran”. The S-300 missiles are “longer-ranging” than the previous missile system Russia sold Iran. According to the AP, “The S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system is capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missile warheads at ranges of over 90 miles and at altitudes of about 90,000 feet. Russian military officials boast that its capabilities outstrip the U.S. Patriot missile system.”

4. McClatchy reports on how Christmas in Baghdad was observed in the story, The ghosts of Christmas past. ” Yousif Akhsho Youmara, who owns an auto-body repair shop in Baghdad, remembers the glorious Christmases of his youth, when family members would stay the night and Muslim and Christian guests would drop by for days. ‘Life used to be more cheerful. Not like now,’ he recalled. Still, Christmas this year was better than it was last year, when Youmara was too frightened to decorate or attend church services… Violence is way down from last Christmas. But there’s hardly a sense of joy. Too many people are missing.”