Tag Archives: Media

Media, Politics

Iraq's Timetable Is More Table Than Time

Good news. Iraq is finally in the position to look toward taking over complete control of their country, and us out.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. Although the last of the five Army brigades that made up the surge will be leaving this month, political solutions still need to happen. 15 of 18 goals set forth last year have been met.

The widely publicized, and misrepresented, ‘timetable’ is a lesson in political maneuvering. PM al-Maliki has some coalition building of his own to undertake. Bringing together all the political parts to unify the country is required. Talk of a timetable, it is hoped, will facilitate that. The real timetable isn’t based on the calendar. According to his national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, it is based on the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security, which is in agreement with the Bush administration, not against it.

It is the media’s interpretation of a TIMEtable that the administration is against. Not Iraq’s.

related links:Iraqi security better; governance falling short | Iraq raises idea of timetable for US withdrawal

Media, Politics, War On Terror

Senate Overwhelmingly Passes FISA Law

In a 69-28 vote yesterday, the Senate approved a revised FISA bill that the House approved last month. The President is expected to sign it. It is a little disappointing that the vote wasn’t 97-0, since we are talking about taking out terrorists and terrorist cells, but it does show the far left’s commitment to their wacko base.

Bowing to President Bush’s demands, the Senate approved and sent the White House a bill Wednesday to overhaul bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

alAP is not pleased. In fact, if you want to know where alAP stands on the issue, one only has to read the title of their article, ‘Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill.’

They could have approached it from a different perspective, like an unbiased news perspective. They might have used one like this, ‘Washington United In Fighting Terror.’ Had they done that, it would have also sent the correct message to the enemy, instead of the wrong one.

link: Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill

2008 Election, Immigration, Media, Politics

Embarrassed For The First Time?

I was flabbergasted today when Democrat Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama said that he was embarrassed, as an American, compared to European countries. And for an even more innocuous, if not arrogant, reason. Speaking ‘Spanish.’

I’ve never before seen such contempt for their country from someone who wants to be president of it then what the possible first couple thinks of it. His wife, no, I won’t lay off her. His wife said that for the first time she was proud of her country. It doesn’t matter what kind of context she comes up with. That statement speaks for itself as far as where she is coming from. From her writings at Princeton, it makes perfect sense that she would and could say something like she said. There was no mis-speaking going on.

Now, Barack himself says today that the United States embarrasses him. What the hell kind of talk is that about this country from someone that wants to be President? What media figure will ask the first-term senator whether this was the first time he had been embarrassed by this country, or if he has felt that way all his life? That isn’t going to happen.

I wouldn’t expect the media to pick up on this. Which explains why, about 10 hours after it happened, there is no news yet about it in the drive-by media. Not the New York Times, not the Washington Post, and not al-AP.

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Today's Special

I don’t know how this story got past the al-AP editorial board, but it is sure to be ignored by everyone else. Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program that included 550 tons of yellowcake. That is enough needed to produce about 145 nuclear warheads. From the American Thinker . . .

The media have been telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD, so “Bush’s War”: was based on a “lie.” And those who believed Saddam did have WMD or WMD programs were delusional or worse.

But today, on July 6, 2008, the Associated Press reports that

* Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program
* At the Tuwaitha nuclear complex just south of Baghdad
* Which included 550 metric tons (over 1.2 million pounds) of “yellowcake”, or concentrated uranium
* And multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon.

Should be obvious to everyone now that the 550 tons of yellowcake was for making radioactive sand castles, not for developing nuclear weapons grade uranium. Now that the dis-confirmations have been dis-confirmed, who was lying and who was ignoring?

For about five years now, those of us who thought Saddam Hussein probably had at least WMD programs, if not WMD themselves, have been called not only wrong, but illogical and insane.

There’s not enough bandwidth on the Internet to handle all the ‘corrections’ and apologies for years of disinformation by the media and Democrat politicians in general. We weren’t the ones who were crazy ideologues.

related link: AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq | Disconfirmations Disconfirmed: Saddam Had Nuke Program

Media, Pensacola, Race Relations

Nation's Best 'Black' Newspaper

Actually, the award is the ‘Best Newspaper,’ not the best Black newspaper. But I didn’t title it, E & P did. The relevance of the ‘Black’ aspect of it is the National Newspaper Publishers Association, known as The Black Press Of America. The NNPA is a 67-year-old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers from across the United States. From Editor & Publisher . . .

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), has bestowed 10 honors, including the John B. Russwurm Award for “Best Newspaper,” to the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest continuously running black newspaper. This is the seventh time in the last 12 years that the Philadelphia Tribune has won the “Best Newspaper” award.

Among the awards the Philly Tribune received is Best Editorial for this piece from Sunday editor Mike Bruton titled ‘End The Chaos: Start Snitching.’

With the city’s crime problem and explosive murder rate, Mr. Bruton hit the nail on the head with this one. We could benefit from his message right here in Pensacola. And everywhere for that matter.

related links: ‘Philadelphia Tribune’ Named Nation’s Best Black Newspaper | End the chaos: Start snitching

Media, Politics

Happy Independence Day

We’ll be celebrating our independence with the family and thanking God that we were all born in the United States, where freedom is not a dirty word. Although that does depend on who you ask.

Others, like Mark Murray, Deputy Political Director at NBC, prefer to forget the purpose of the holiday. To him, it’s ‘Happy Fourth of July.’ It’s a day off from work.

At the time I read his post on First Read, there were no comments posted. So I commented to his post something to the effect of ‘Happy Fourth of July? Mark, it’s Happy Independence Day. But you knew that.’

I just checked in on the post and my comment is not among those listed. So I made another just for giggles.

This post probably won’t make it either, like the one I made yesterday. I guess because the author feels embarrassed at the thought of calling this holiday what it really is, Independence Day.

Not one, NOT ONE, post in this thread (so far) refers to it. It’s happy 4th of July to the left, and the media, who should know better. But won’t.

So, to all my conservative friends reading this, both of you, Happy Independence Day.

Not one of the ‘approved’ comments mention Independence Day. There can only be one of two reasons for this. Either Mr. Murray refuses to acknowledge the holiday and all that it represents, which would amount to malpractice for a ‘Political Director,’ OR like all the other commenters, he really doesn’t know what it is, which would amount to journalistic malpractice as well. Could there be another possible reason?

One thing is evident about the political climate today. The current batch of the majority party today would never have dreamed of splitting with the Crown. And if they did dream about it, they wouldn’t have the courage to do it.

related links: Happy Fourth Of July | History’s trash heap filled with dust of empire | Some Americans Are Saying We Shouldn’t Celebrate Independence Day | Independence Day: Happy Birthday, America! 232 Years Strong

Immigration, Judiciary, Media, Politics, War On Terror

NYT Outs CIA Agent, Who Cares?

If we weren’t talking about war and warfare, this would be funny. You don’t have to look hard to see the bias of the media. Scott Shane, a reporter for the New York Times just outed the identity of the CIA agent that interrogated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and nobody seems to care. And it was no accident either.

Fearing retribution, the agency asked the paper not to name the CIA analyst. The paper ran his name anyway, saying it generally withholds names only in the case of ‘victims of sexual assault or intelligence officers operating undercover.’ While the operative was not serving undercover, the fact that he interrogated the architect of the 9/11 plot was classified. Naming him added nothing to the Times story.

Remember too the record of New York Times when it comes to national security of the United States . . .

The New York Times previously disclosed the existence of the Bush administration’s secret National Security Agency program for intercepting calls of suspected terrorists when one leg of the call is in the U.S. It also disclosed the administration’s SWIFT program for tracking the worldwide financial transactions of terrorists.

Starting with the Valerie Plame debacle, who still insists that Dick Cheney outed her, when we all know, the media included, that it was Richard Armitage that outed her, and Scooter Libby is the only one who gets charged. No actions taken against Armitage.

Now, we have surrogates of Barack Obama and the far left attempting to diminish John McCain’s military experience to something equal to Obama’s, which is zip, zero, nada. They’re saying he’s not a hero, he’s a loser who got himself shot down and participated in a propaganda video.

Today, no one is asking any questions or jumping in front of TV cameras, and generally foaming at the mouth like Democrats were when the whole Plame/Wilson theater production took place. There is no effort afloat in Washington to put that reporter or the New York Times in front of a Senate Intelligence Committee (I know, its an oxymoron) with the aim of getting the Justice Department (another one) involved. Amazingly, there’s no curiosity whatsoever about it.

Who tortured Scott Shane to go so far as he did, to really jeopardize the welfare of that agent and his family when he published the agent’s name that interrogated KSM?

links: Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation | N.Y. Times Names Names, Jeopardizes Safety – Again

Media, Politics

Obama Fights Back?

Who is responsible for this, Obama or the media? I’m not sure. But the media’s story line is that Barack Obama is fighting back at supposed attacks on his patriotism. Have you heard anyone of significance on the R side of the aisle who has attacked Barack’s patriotism? Me neither. And apparently, Reuters hasn’t either, despite the article’s title.

If you read the story, there is not one quote from anyone attacking Obama’s patriotism. Wazzupwidat? It is the media’s story line, and the left’s way of deflecting attention to what his surrogates are doing and have done, to McCain.

Isn’t it odd that a presidential wannabe is out there spontaneously explaining that he is patriotic? I think that if you have to explain that, then you’re in trouble. Once again, the Obama campaign picked the wrong fight.

related link: Obama fights back against questions on patriotism

2008 Election, Iran, Media, Politics, War On Terror

Another Corner Turned In Iraq

By now it is obvious to everyone that the so-called ‘news’ media has no interest in telling this story since they, along with the left, are invested in defeat where Iraq is concerned. This development in Iraq is the kind of success everyone has been looking for. Iraq is opening its oil fields to international oil companies for bidding for development and production.

This is not to suggest that the war there and our participation there is over. But the fact that the newly formed democratically elected government of Iraq has progressed to the point that they can make plans for their future says a lot about the success of the war so far.

The move to invite bids for the development of Iraq’s largest producing fields should mark the return of the oil majors, whose cash and expertise Iraq needs to restore its oil infrastructure that has been hard hit by sanctions and war.

By allowing international firms to help raise output at its key producing oil fields, the Iraqi government is breaking with the policy of major oil-producing neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates where national firms keep tight control of foreign investment in their oil sectors.

Iraq’s move to embrace the world economy is a corner we’ve been looking forward to turning. The left will no doubt say, ‘ya see, it was a war for oil.’

It is Iraq’s own resources that Iraq needs to join the world as a friendly and prosperous country. It’s what the Iraqi people need. The left’s premise in their whole ‘war for oil’ rant is that the oil is for us, the U.S. On the contrary, the war for oil was about keeping it from Iran and al Qaeda and saving it for the people of Iraq. The fact that theses terrorists would have all the money they could possibly need to wage war on us had they taken over Iraq still escapes the left, Barack Obama included.

related link: Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms