For the rest of you itinerant, channel-switching lurkers out there, I hope you can spare 90 seconds to check out what's really happening. So as not to test or tax your attention span, I'll just present three or four items of what's really going on:
- In the single policy venture which most currently and ultimately defines the historical legacy of George W. Bush - his un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI) - American fatalities (KIA) reached 2,630 today. That's 53 this month. The number of American service men and women sustaining life-altering wounds in Iraq have reached 8,922.
- In Iraq, Fewer Killed, More Are Wounded
New data shows better technology and tactics are keeping fatalities down, but injuries remain high.Saving more American lives in the war zones means more people must be treated for amputations and other serious injuries, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
- In order to extend his UULUIUOI another two years - until such time as he can blame his mess on his Democratic successors, Bush is in the process of converting our all-voluntary military into involuntary conscription.
- Spike in Violence Shatters Calm in Iraq
In Iraq, a series of explosions, gunbattles, car bombs and executions over the past 48 hours have left at least 192 dead, including eight U.S. soldiers. In one attack, a car bomb was detonated at a police checkpoint near the Ministry of the Interior, killing at least 16 people.
Thank you for your attention.
While I would love to see a guilty party charged in the Ramsey case so some justice could be brought to that little girl this Karr circus has long since become a journalistic embarassment. I just spent the last ten minutes watching MSNBC and Rita Cosby talk about her "feelings" as she and Karr made eye contact.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Comair crash is concerned far too much time was spent on fancy computer graphics showing what happened with the same information being repeated at least thirty times in a two hour time frame.
Ernesto for me is another matter, while I live in cental South Carolina a good portion of my family lives on the coast where Ernesto seems to be drifting toward. He is weak as hurricanes go but he will still be a pain to those he bumps into. But even then the major news outlets have spent far to much time on something the local outlets could handle better. And as Vigil has shown Iraq, where there is major news, has all but been bumped.
It's curious that we both criticized the Amercian news media, especially the cable news networks, within hours of each other last night (looks like I beat you by about 4 hours). It's tragic that cable news squanders their opportunity to educate the public in favor of talking heads and sensationistic tabloid journalism.
ReplyDeleteWhile my comments in Flying Under the Radar were once again focused on the non-coverage of the continuing genocide in Darfur, your comments about the equally poor coverage of Iraq were right on target.
I wrote, "While we are being lulled into a stupor by the continuous and detailed coverage of John Mark Karr's every champaign airline toast or jailhouse bologna sandwich, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir slaughters a few hundred or a few thousand more refugees."
I do appreciate beach bum's coimments about Ernesto. Today is the one year anniversary or our being hit by Katrina. Beach bum, my prayers are with you and all in Ernesto's path.....
the Wizard.....
Talked with my uncle, the one that lives in Pawleys, this evening and his biggest worry about Ernesto is beach erosion. My other uncle refuses to talk about any storm less than a cat 2, he loves to tell stories about his surfing days in his youth as "minor" storms passed by. This may be selfish but my biggest worry is that it might mess up the family fishfry we were planning down there this weekend. My plan was to throw the kids in the starship very early Saturday morning and be at my uncle's house on Pawleys by 10:00am. Beer drinking and shrimp and hushpuppy eating would start at noon by family tradition. Latest weather report says everything might be OK, I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI hope so, too Beach.
ReplyDeleteI thought about what I had written in the above (original) post all day and on the ride home and I feel I must apologize for my dismissive attitude pertaining to Ernesto. It was untimely, uninformed and insensitive. I thank both Wizard and Beach for pointing that out and doing so in the gentle and subtle tones which they used.
No problem, as I wrote one of my uncles does not consider anything less than a cat 2 worthy of his attention. And the national news media is making this storm a great deal bigger than it is in real life. My fishfry is still on.
ReplyDeleteThe Canadian perspective is that American Republicans are afflicted by the
ReplyDeleteStockholm Syndrome:
"an emotional attachment to a captor formed by a hostage as a result of continuous stress, dependence and a need to co-operate for survival."
Consider how well this syndrome explains our conservatives clinging to Bush after he has kidnapped their party and our country.
So, sometimes it does pay to follow the superficial stories of the day - like the Natascha Kampusch story in Austria.
Of course, there are the others like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin who regularly practice Bushlatio.
ReplyDelete