THE DAILY BLADE: MSM On The Iraq War: If It Doesn’t Bleed, It Doesn’t Lead
Writing in the New York Post, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and author Ralph Peters ("Wars of Blood and Faith") observes that the MSM is winding down in-depth, front-page coverage from Iraq "[b]ecause things are going annoyingly well":
All those reporters, editors and producers who predicted - longed for - an American defeat have moved on to more pressing strategic issues, such as O.J.'s latest shenanigans. …
Oh, if you turned to the inner pages of the "leading" newspapers, you found grudging mention of the fact that roadside-bomb attacks are down by half and indirect-fire attacks by three-quarters while the number of suicide bombings has plummeted. …
Where are they? Is it really so painful for all those war-porno journos to accept that our military - and the Iraqis - may have turned the situation around? Shouldn't we read and see and hear a bit of praise for today's soldiers and the progress they're making?
The media's new trick is to concentrate coverage on our wounded, mouthing platitudes while using military amputees as props to suggest that, no matter what happens in Iraq, everything's still a disaster.
Peters then goes in for the kill: "How many of you really believe that those perfectly coiffed reporters care about our soldiers and their families? Does anyone think those news anchors will invite any Marines in wheelchairs home for Thanksgiving?"
At Least He Didn’t Call Barry A "Macaca"
Must we hear about it every time this crack addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new - and typically half-witted - political grandstanding? I'd be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose.
Barry - who served six months in prison after being caught on videotape smoking crack with a woman not his wife in a hotel room during an FBI sting in 1990, and had tested positive for cocaine and marijuana at the mandatory drug testing for a hearing on tax evasion charges on October 28, 2005 (he got three years probation after pleading guilty, and still undergoes drug counseling) - said the E-mail "amounted to ‘character assassination’," adding that "around the nation, it's almost open season on black people." He did not elaborate further, or offer evidence supporting his race-baiting remark.
WaPo Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. called Page's e-mail "a terrible mistake" and said he has taken "appropriate internal action," but not even Howard Kurtz could find out what form it had taken. Citing his 30 year career in journalism, Page hopes "people won't judge me on this one explosion."
Assuming Page’s is not a registered Republican whose politics are right-of center, he can rest easy. There was no blowback after "Sixty Minutes" blowhard Andy Rooney, 88, lamented about there being so many Hispanics in baseball he couldn’t keep their names straight. And ESPN broadcaster Michael Irvin was given a free pass after his November 2006 "joke" (his characterization) about Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo's athletic ability being the result of an African-American heritage.
The MSM loves to pile on when a politician or celebrity utters a misunderstood comment (the most egregious example being the perfectly good English word, "niggardly"), a joke that falls flat or an intemperate (sometimes inebriated) remark, but is typically very forgiving when the "racist" is one of its own.
Bunco Parties Are So Five Minutes Ago
WKMG-Channel 6 (Orlando, FL) reports that women nationwide are throwing Taser parties in their homes, where "the guns are presented with wine and cheese, similar to earlier Tupperware parties." The Taser guns are light, fit into a purse and come in a variety of colors, including metallic pink.
The Other Shoe Drops: Updates To Previous Posts
† He Must Have Really Loved Those Pants
: D.C. administrative law judge Roy Pearson who famously sued a Mom & Pop dry cleaning establishment for $54 million not only lost the case, but has now lost his job. The D.C. Commission on Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges voted not to reappoint him. It’s only fair, since the burden of defending themselves forced the couple to close up shop. † Fed Up With Farmers: A string of well-publicized workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and arrests of employers who knowingly hire forged documented workers induced fruit growers in WA to hire twice as many legal seasonal pickers and farm hands through the federal guestworker program as they did last year, reports The Associated Press:Bill Tarrow, spokesman for the state Department of Employment Security, said growers received permission to hire 1,657 workers through the federal H-2A program, and at least 1,140 were in fact hired. In 2006, permission was granted for 814 workers, and 515 hirings were verified.
Under the program, growers can hire foreign workers on temporary visas if there's a shortage of workers. Growers must pay $9.77 an hour, provide housing, and pay for the workers' transportation.
† Clinton Campaign Takes A Page From FEMA’s Playbook: In a CNN interview, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, the 19-year-old Grinnell College sophomore who was instructed by an operative to ask Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) a question on global warming at a recent campaign event in IA called the ploy "dishonest." She also told CNN that, "After the event, I heard another man ... talking about the question he asked, and he said that the campaign had asked him to ask that question." Gallo-Chasanoff also said that the campaign requested that she inform a campaign staffer when she talks to the media about the incident, adding, "I'm not under any real obligation to do that, and I haven't talked to [the campaign] anymore." Getting caught planting questions reinforces the perception that Hillary is not all that honest, opines Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst (ya think?).
† Are Our Second Amendment Rights Hanging On A Comma?: The Supreme Court is expected to decide next week whether to grant cert. and review an appellate court ruling that held Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban is unconstitutional on the grounds that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. The New York Times reports:
[I]t is not a given that the justices will accept the invitation. On the polarized court, that might depend on whether justices who feel strongly on either side can be confident of prevailing. It might also depend on the justices’ collective appetite for injecting themselves into a controversy the court has avoided for so long.
The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm and occasional contributor to this blog, recently had the opportunity to discuss this very question with our favorite newly-named Court of Appeals Chief Judge:
His prediction? Cert. denied. The conservatives won't want to disturb the verdict and the liberals won't want to deal with one of their least favorite "senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us" [dissenting opinion in Silveira v. Lockyer, 01-15098 (9th Cir. 2002)].
Speaking of which, The Heel’s law school boasted the nation's largest chapter of the American Constitution Society, a "progressive legal organization." The ACS president had a penchant for dressing up as the "Living Constitution" - essentially a sandwich board listing the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments. Notice something missing???
† WA State Rule: Druggists Cannot Refuse To Fill Plan B Prescriptions (second item): In a federal lawsuit filed against WA in July, Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma has granted a preliminary injunction against enforcing a WA Department of Health rule requiring pharmacists to dispense "Plan B" emergency contraceptives. In his 27-page order he wrote:
"Whether or not Plan B ... terminates a pregnancy, to those who believe that life begins at conception, the drug is designed to terminate a life. [The rules] "appear designed to impose a Hobson's choice for the majority of pharmacists who object to Plan B: dispense a drug that ends a life as defined by their religious teachings, or leave their present positions in the state of Washington."
The Seattle Times reports that "[u]nder Leighton's order, pharmacists may now refuse to dispense the medication but must refer a patient to ‘the nearest’ or ‘a nearby’ source for the drug. A trial on the rule is still pending, and is expected to be heard next October.
† Old Wine In New Bottle (second item): Has it really been a year since disgraced CBS anchor Dan Rather, 76, joined Mark Cuban's HDNet? This coming Tuesday’s episode of the weekly one-hour newsmagazine, "Dan Rather Reports" will mark his anniversary. Cuban gave Rather "complete and absolutely creative control." ‘Nuff said.
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