Jun 10, 2008

Impeachment. We're safe... for now.

So, what's important? What do we need to know today?

Currently, some of the stories displayed on the front page of
CNN.COM include the following:

Be Cheap This Summer: Rising gas prices and a worsening economy may affect how Americans spend their leisure time this summer. We want to see how you plan to have fun -- for free.

House Democrat Won't Endorse Obama: one congressional Democrat (Rep. Dan Boren, Oklahoma) said Tuesday he will not endorse Barack Obama's bid for the White House. (Makes sense, everybody is always waiting on pins and needles to hear the next utterance from the great Dan Boren).

700-pound man dreams of walking down the aisle: Mexico (AP) -- Manuel Uribe, who once weighed a half-ton but has slimmed down to about 700 pounds, celebrates his 43rd birthday Wednesday with a simple wish for the coming year: to be able to stand on his own two feet to get married.

Man finds $250,000 lottery ticket in jacket : A Prince George's man found more than he expected when searching his pockets last week.

Important stuff - but these days, there are a few corners of the Internet where fringe groups come together and discuss issues that, unlike the stories above, aren't at all newsworthy and in reality would be offensive, and even dangerous to the average American's ear. Even so, and regrettably, some news wire services continue to cater to these extremist elements within our society by reporting on fodder such as the following:

Rep. Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution: Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Monday he wants the House to consider a resolution to impeach President Bush... Kucinich, D-Ohio, read his proposed impeachment language in a floor speech. He contended Bush deceived the nation and violated his oath of office in leading the country into the Iraq war... Kucinich introduced a resolution last year to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. That resolution was killed, but only after Republicans initially voted in favor of taking up the measure to force a debate.

Apparently, this Kucinich character is a member of the U.S. Congress, I would imagine from one of the pockets of far left constituencies in Oregon, or California - they say he ran in the Democratic presidential primary. I don't recall hearing his name on CNN too much, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing his name during the introductory credits during the first few debates - back when there were all those other people up on the stage with Hillary and Obama.

Of course, none of this has made it to the front page of CNN.COM - which means that, so far, those who fight to ensure that our airwaves only reflect respectable American values continue to prevail in their struggle. Even so, there is always the possibility that members of these extremist elements within our society could make their way into the permissive bastions of the liberal media and plant details of this sordid activity within the websites of our major news outlets.

In order to ensure that this type of propaganda is not allowed to infect those who are deficient in their ability to retain the information that is essential to their enjoyment of the American way of life, it is important that these ideas are not readily available within the media system. I am happy to report that, as of this writing, those who protect the fourth pillar of democracy from anti-American rhetoric are succeeding.

By clicking on the following link, you will find the latest results retrieved when the search term "
impeachment" is entered into the CNN.COM website. As you can see, despite the ever increasing leftward slant of this organization, the words of the dangerous classes have not surfaced. No word of the above noted activity can be found, even when the search term "Kucinich" is entered into the site. (Note: after the writing of this post, CNN finally added an article to their site - but I'm sure you still get the point).

One should not be lulled into a feeling of security based on the above noted information. I have heard reports that mention of this affair has been made during CNN broadcasts, however, if I have not seen it, I would imagine the seepage is not such that we should be overly concerned of an outbreak.

Currently, even those with the unenviable job of defending America from the scourge of the far left media that takes advantage of our freedoms are meeting with success, as the same two search terms, "
impeachment" and "Kucinich", entered into the MSNBC site fail to register the latest activities of those who would deny Americans their beliefs (although, as you can see, one article reporting on earlier activities perpetrated by this same crew has made it through - an example of the danger a weak moment permits).

While the danger can never be understated, it is comforting to know that the individuals that own these broadcasters, and those who they choose to work for them, continue to ensure that the information conveyed to the nation accurately reflects the
views and desires that they share in common with the American people.

It is imperative that we continue to understand the common good through the voices of those whose place in the order of things entitles them to the
positions of leadership they hold. For every time a citizen's mind is captured by the Kuciniches of the world - slipping outside of the wide spectrum of acceptable American values - it means that a few more of our tax dollars are diverted from growth and jobs to fund the necessary increase in policing and domestic security costs that such dangerous ideas necessitate.

May 14, 2008

Girl of 8 used as 'suicide' bomber - and other tales the corporate media wishes were true.

Girl of 8 used as 'suicide' bomber.

To the average consumer of the corporate-media's wares, headlines such as this serve to assure them of the evil nature of the forces that we are currently confronting. In spite of all our blunders, and in spite of the seemingly complicated issues that surround the War on Terror, here is a clear example of the evil that the Western forces of good are clumsily attempting to counter.

On the other hand, for those of us who have retained the lessons that the Western corporate media have so painfully bestowed on us, particularly the advanced level courses we have been forced to endure over the last seven years, the nature of the above noted headline served to alert us that it was time to carefully inspect the bottom of our shoes.

Unfortunately, the pass rate for the above noted curriculum appears to be dreadfully low, and nowhere does the failure rate seem more abysmal than among those who make up the ranks of the global media system.

The story attached to the above noted headline consists of the following: an eight year old girl was strapped with explosives, she approached an Iraqi army captain at a checkpoint, the explosives were detonated by remote control. The editors ensure that the word suicide appears in quotes, as if to sneeringly confirm to it's consumers that, "yes - you are well acquainted with the type of Islamic scum we're talking about here".

A quick glance of the article in question assures us that the stench emanating from the headline is likely an accurate indicator of the articles content - the first warning sign arises as a result of the timing between the incident and the publication of the story.

While the news is attributed to the Guardian in some articles, the
first mention of an eight year old bomber appears in the Metro UK, a free UK daily. The story was captured by Google news around four o'clock in the afternoon London time, or six o'clock in the evening Baghdad time. While there is no mention of what time the incident took place in Baghdad, it is clear that it took place on Wednesday - hours ahead of the publication.

While we can be sure that the crime scene investigators of the coalition forces are getting lots of practice when it comes to bombings - it's difficult to believe that they were really able to determine that the bomb was detonated via remote control from the small pieces of bomb, human flesh, bone, debris, etc., in time for the evening editions.

Of course, the biggest indicator that we are being offered a spoonful of the substance the corporate media has served us so often before is the sources. The sources, in no particular order, consist of the following: an Iraqi Army spokesman, US soldiers, the military, and Iraqi Army Lieutenant Ahmed Ali.

These are the same entities that provide the lions share of information on the day to day occurrences in Iraq and the greater war on terror that is reported by the ever vigilant employees of the corporate media bosses. In much the same way that these employees will drift between stints as journalists, to government PR and corporate PR - their bosses will drift between stints as VP, CEO, or Member of the board, and elected official or political advisor. You see, the employees are very aware of the types of sources that their bosses would approve of -they share an ideology that lends to this perspective - if they didn't, then they would likely never have risen to the positions they hold within the corporate media establishment.

The biggest problem that would have been noted by far too few readers of this story, is its similarity with a story that emerged from the same sources at the beginning of February. In that particular version of the how low can the Islamic scum we're fighting go genre, the media quickly informed us that the terrorists had strapped explosives to two women with Down Syndrome. While it's too early to tell exactly how far this particular tale of Islamic evil will travel, the Down Syndrome suicide bomber version had legs. ABC, MSNBC, the London Times, and thousands of other arms of the media system covered the event. In fact, a
Google search of the term will still get you a whole page of accounts describing how the forces of darkness strapped bombs to the women, and persuaded them to blow themselves and 91 to 99 other people up.

There was one small problem with the story, and the problem was apparently so small that it didn't seem to warrant much in the way of retractions - it wasn't true. The
credible information that was deemed reliable by the system's editors originally came from one Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the chief Iraqi military commander in Baghdad, who had determined that "photos of the women's heads showed they had Down syndrome".

It would appear that today's 8 year old suicide bomber story suffers from the same deficiency as its Down Syndrome kin. The details of the story have been quietly morphing as the day has progressed: the 8 year old girl
turned into a 16 year old girl whose bomb was detonated by remote control. Now it would appear that the girl is aging quickly, now between 16 and 18, and it would also appear that there was no remote control, and the stories are beginning to drop the info on the original error altogether - so just another crazy suicide bomber blowing herself up to hook up with the 72 virgins and..... hmm, that doesn't seem to work - oh well.

While a little digging at the muck that has once again been deposited at our feet reveals the truth, you can rest assured that the headlines will not scream out Suicide bomber NOT 8 year old girl - millions of corporate media consumers will never see a retraction, or make the connection when they see the revised story. They will simply go through life believing that those individuals in Iraq who resist foreign occupation, and sometimes are willing to sacrifice there own lives to that end, strap remote controlled bombs to 8 year old girls.

In ending, a response to those who would excuse stories such as those above as being understandable errors based on information from reliable sources. If the Iraqi army and government officials constitute reliable sources, then I would ask you to examine the
events that occurred in the village of Ishaqi in March 2006. These events did not scream across the pages of the corporate press, in this case the words of Iraqi police and government officials were never enough for the corporate media's consumers to hear of it - but unlike this case, questions remain, and silence persists.