The Associated Press reported today that the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq has now hit 3,000. The NYT has this interactive showing each and every one.

However, there were only 24 other violent deaths reported in the country on Sunday, so the Eid holiday could mean a slowdown, if only temporary, in the carnage.

Chuck Klosterman compares and contrasts Syd Barrett and Brian Wilson in this brief article for the NYT magazine.

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From the NYT:

While ongoing negotiations to buy the beleaguered radio network Air America have kept its future in a state of limbo, the company had one bit of good news last week.

WXXM-FM, a station in Madison, Wis., owned by Clear Channel Communications, rescinded a decision to drop the liberal network in favor of Fox Sports Radio. The station, known as “the Mic” 92.1, was preparing to switch to a local sports format on Jan. 1. But last Friday, in a surprise statement, the station manager, Jeff Tyler, announced that the station had decided to continue with the progressive talk format of Air America into 2007.

A news release made it clear that public outcry was very directly responsible for the reversal: "We are overwhelmed by the recent outpouring of support for our Progressive Talk format from the public, some of our community leaders and some dedicated local advertisers.”

Soon after the initial announcement to drop Air America was made on Nov. 7, a 28-year-old-student, Valerie Walasek, began an an online petition campaign that gathered more than 5,000 signatures and also organized a large rally. She said she was shocked at the outcome.

It's worth noting that Madison is one of the most liberal college towns in the United States (The Onion was planted there). If Air America couldn't make it there, could it make it anywhere? 

The NYT has a story on Google's new offices in Manhattan, where they're almost partying like it's 1999 -- er, without the live sex shows that some of the more licentious dot-coms hosted in those halcyon days.

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In 2006, 55 journalists were killed in the line of duty around the world, a stunning 32 in Iraq alone. Democracy Now! talked to Frank Smyth of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Democracy Now! unearthed an interview with James Brown and the Rev. Al Sharpton conducted in 1980, which were dark days career-wise for the Godfather of Soul. He tried to go independent and couldn't get played on radio, booked into decent halls, nothing.

The interview, conducted by Jon Alpert, was recorded just before things broke for Brown. Ultimately, the documentary for which the interview was conducted never got made. But the interview is still interesting:

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The NYT indicates that that Saddam has already been factored into the market of public opinion for the Iraq war. Unfortunately for Dubya, the Iraq support index is still falling.

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Saddam Hussein's execution is a sideshow to Iraq's far graver problems. A bigger concern is what will the U.S. do next, and will its actions make things better -- or, God forbid, worse -- in the country it invaded, asks BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.

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Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, one of the 20th century's most notorious tyrants, was executed at dawn on Saturday in Baghdad, along with two senior members of his deposed regime.

Does it matter if he is guilty, but, in the opinion of one major human rights group, wasn't fairly convicted?

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From the Online Journalism Review blurb: All U.S. journalists, pro and amateur, need for better field reporting is a better cell phone. Fortunately, some are on the way.

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This NY article looks at how former U.S. President Gerald Ford dealt with the almost weekly lampooning at the hands of physical comedy master Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live.

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It's that time of year to look back on the best and worst of the year that was. Here's one Canada reference that stuck out.

In the film The Last King of Scotland, Nicholas Garrigan, the recent medical graduate protagonist, realizes how bored he is at home and decides to seek an adventure.

He decides spin the globe in his room and travel to the first country on which his finger lands.

It lands on Canada.

He shakes his head 'no' and spins again. :)

Canada got a mention in Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts. One New Orleans resident (if I remember correctly) said when he asked some emergency workers where they were from, they said they were with the RCMP! What made the man shake his head is that no one seemed to be around from the U.S. government.

I felt relieved tonight when I felt a few flakes of snow on my face. :)

The Beeb covers off some key questions about the conflict in Somalia.

Expect the West to put more pressure on Pakistan to deal with the Taliban -- and expect that pressure to go nowhere, writes the Beeb's Paul Dahar.

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The Rev. Al Sharpton had this to say about James Brown, who lay on the stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on Thursday:

"It was James Brown that with one song erased the word negro from our vocabulary forever and made us say it and say it loud, that we were black and we were proud.

"He proved to us if you believe in God and you believe in yourself you can make it no matter what."

If you don't know what I'm referring to, it's his famous 1968 song.

From the NYT story:

James Brown, with a catalog of socially conscious music, including “Say It Loud -- I’m Black and I’m Proud,” which at least one person waiting in line yesterday called “the real black national anthem,” changed America’s collective black consciousness, Mrs. Harper said.

“When he said, ‘Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,’ that was very important for us,” Mrs. (Brenda) Harper said. “At that point, black people as a whole were confused about where we stood in America. But he said, ‘You are beautiful, you are important.’ He made us feel that and believe that.”

Harper first saw Brown perform at the Apollo in 1961, when she was eight years old. She was the first in line for the public viewing of his body on Thursday.

Here's the BBC's photo gallery. This CTV.ca story has video attached and links to a few backgrounders on Brown. My initial post on JB has been updated with some YouTube links.

Addendum

The popularity of Say It Loud among the black militant set of the time may well have cost Brown some of his white audience. Here's what he wrote in his autobiography:

"The white community took it entirely the wrong way, as a kind of aggressive statement meant to induce fear. So negative was the reaction to the song that radio programmers refused to play it on white stations."

This is a fantastic film! Personally, I ranks up there with Blade Runner (the director's cut) as one of the great dystopian movies ever (although 28 Days Later is damned fine piece of work too).

Great cast, great script and outstanding direction by Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu Mama Tambien).

Here's the NYT review by Manohla Dargis.

Some images to watch for: Picasso's Guernica on the apartment wall of Theo's (Clive Owen's character) politically-connected cousin; the Abu Ghraib-like imagery in the scenes Bexhill refugee camp, which is itself a combination of Baghdad, Grozny and Mogadishu all rolled into one.

If you like serious, adult films (but still fairly mainstream, with a few surprising chuckles thrown into the overall bleak story line), don't miss this one.

There are times when I wish I was actually older than I am. The primary reason for that would be to have had the opportunity to catch artists like James Brown in their prime.

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I wasn't really intending on blogging much today, but I did a quick scan of the BBC News website not long after regaining consciousness, and this caught my eye:

Not to be too nerdy (OK, a bit late for that now), but if the Beeb was getting one-tenth of its normal traffic today, then that would be a drop of 90 per cent. I'm not totally awake yet, and I'm certainly not caffeinated, but I can't figure out how you get to 269 per cent below normal.

Actually, I also can't figure out why I care! :)

Later (still without caffeine)

If "normal" traffic to the Beeb is 100, and today the traffic was 37.174721, then a 269 per cent rise would bring the level back to 100.

However, going from 100 down to 37.174721 is a drop of about 63 per cent.

Improving the world's numeracy: Bill Doskoch's goal for 2007. :)

Here's my wish that whether Christmas is a secular or spiritual day for you, it is ultimately a happy and peaceful one.

The Beeb's Jane Little writes that while the Christmas wars may have eased in the U.S., they are going strong in Europe.

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Salon on how Santa Claus emerged in Victorian-era America (thank the retailing genius of Rowland H. Macy).

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Here's a feature I wrote for CTV.ca headlined New issues to shape political battles of 2007.

The NYT's Richard Siklos asked readers about their predictions for major developments in the world of media for 2007. He reports back.

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From the AP story on CTV.ca:

The UN Security Council on Saturday condemned attacks on journalists during armed conflicts and urged combatants to stop singling out members of the media and respect their professional independence.

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The lede to the AP story on CTV.ca: There's nobody nice on this Christmas list: snowman stabbers, Grinch snatchers, wreath-robbing weasels. 

From the AP story on CTV.ca:

Kevin Campanella hates buying and receiving Christmas presents that he says inevitably disappoint. This year, no such worries.

Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode. Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends.

In protest of Christmas' commercialism, character Frank Costanza puts up an unadorned aluminum pole instead of a tree. The metal, he says admiringly, has a "very high strength-to-weight ratio." ...

The Wagner Companies, a Milwaukee, Wis. firm, has started marketing Festivus poles, but alas, it doesn't sound like they'll be making a serious dent in the Christmas tree market any time soon.

"We did it mainly as a lark. We never looked at it as a tremendous moneymaking scheme," said Tony Leto, the firm's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "But in many ways, Festivus is taking on a life of its own."

From the BBC:

There are no Christmas decorations, the radio stations are still playing hip-hop and rap and some children recoil at an image of Santa decrying it as evil.

Some children in Nigeria prefer masquerades to Santa

"His costume looks phoney and his face is strange," says eight-year-old Ifunanya Chima when shown a picture of the benign bearded old man in his trademark red cloak with white fur trimmings.

"We prefer masquerades," he told me referring to the traditional colourful dancing which is a big part of the festive season here. ...

Christmas in Nigeria is a time for new clothes, long distance travels for family reunions, and lots of colourful masquerade dances in most villages.

Religious differences

And for now, it does not matter that half of Nigeria's 130 million people are Muslims with a handful of pagans.

At Christmas, most Nigerians forget their religious differences and just share their Christmas rice - a dish of boiled rice eaten with very spicy chicken stew.

"I celebrate Christmas because it's a time for loads of fun," says Ibrahim Idris, a Muslim in Abuja.

Pity the poor Project for the New American Century. The whole Iraq debacle may have ruined its agenda, like, forever, writes BBC world affairs analyst Paul Reynolds.

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An LAT story on "citizen journalism" and why Reuters will buy photos but not stories. However, Gannett, the USA's largest newspaper company, is willing to let citizens hit the keyboard.

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In a sobering story, Newsweek claims that al Qaeda is using its new playpen of North Waziristan in the tribal area of Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan to train a small group of Westerners to lead attacks in their homelands.

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From the BBC:

Chinese retailers and young people have embraced Western festivals

A group of Chinese students has criticised a rise in Christmas revelry, urging people to "resist Western cultural invasion", state media says.

The 10 students, all from elite universities, posted their views on an internet website, the China Daily said.

They condemned the proliferation of Christmas trees, seasonal messages in the media and people celebrating "until very late" on Christmas Eve.

The government was to blame for failing to maintain traditions, they said.

"Occidental culture has been more like storms sweeping through the country rather than mild showers," the students argued.

People were joining in Christmas partying without giving its meaning much thought, they said.

Yeah, well, same here. :)