Merry christmas!

An impression of the crazy, kitschy and beautiful frontyard decorations in our neighborhood.

I wish everybody a beautiful and relaxing christmas time!

Support for war slips - the killing goes on

Most Americans now believe the war with Iraq was not worth fighting and more than half want to fire embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the chief architect of that conflict, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey found that 56 percent of the country now believes that the cost of the conflict in Iraq outweighs the benefits, while 42 percent disagreed. It marked the first time since the war began that a clear majority of Americans have judged the war to have been a mistake.
In the meanwhile: 19 U.S. soldiers are among the 24 killed today in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Iraq to date.

The superpower's super depts

From the Washington Times:
Foreigners put up 90 percent of the $2 billion required every day to make sure Uncle Sam's checks don't bounce. (...) The United States' foreign creditors hold an estimated $11 trillion in U.S. "paper", or 43 percent of the superpower's privately held national debt, up from 30 percent since George W. Bush became the 43rd president. China, Japan and Saudi Arabia are among the biggest dollar stakeholders, and they have seen their assets fall 35 percent against the euro and 24 percent against the yen.

Yahoo Traffic

Cool. Yahoo launched live traffic update - a useful tool for the U.S.' capital of the car obsessed...

Did Bush order prisoner abuse?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reports that new documents it received from its Freedom of Information Act request on Iraqi prisoners contain a shocking revelation:

A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as “torture” and a June 2004 “Urgent Report” to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.
“These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers.”

Christmas fireplace on TV

A long-running New York TV tradition comes to L.A. this Christmas... the TV Yule Log!
The local station KCAL/9 will run an uninterrupted shot of a crackling fireplace between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Christmas morning (along with holiday tunes in the background). KCAL got the idea from New York's WPIX-TV, which made the Yule Log an annual tradition from 1966 to 1989 - as sort of a media stand-in for real fireplaces, something most Americans don't have. After a 12-year hiatus, WPIX brought the Log back in 2001.
Plus: Internet user can also watch the cozy crackling fireplace via the web.

The most unpopular president

Not even two months after the election, Bush is poised to be the most unpopular president at his inaugaration.
Since his 3-percentage-point win over Senator John Kerry, Bush has experienced a complete lack of bounce in the polls. In fact, in at least one national survey, Fox News' Opinion Dynamics poll, Bush's approval rating has fallen five points in the last month, to 48 percent. This is the lowest of any of the last seven presidents who won a second term in the first poll conducted after their re-election. Right after securing their second terms, Bill Clinton received a 58 percent approval rating, Ronald Reagan 61 percent, Richard Nixon 62 percent, Lyndon Johnson 70 percent, Dwight Eisenhower 75 percent, and Harry Truman 69 percent.

A daily dose beach

Webcam from Laguna Beach, California.