Glad to have them back

USS Cape Cod

All that's fit to Print

Thoughts: the largest scale operation since the fall of the Saddam regime in 2003 is underway, right now in Iraq, and what is our media focused on informing the general public about? This:


Aside from that spectacle, here's a survey of some of the other headlines after doing a search for "Arrowhead ripper". Arrowhead what you say?:

MSN = Nothing

CNN = Nothing up in headlines on their home page. Last article mentioning the offensive is three days old under "Nine U.S. troops die in Iraq" (Of course, you need to read 15 paragraphs into the article to find where they mention that these soldiers died in an operation that killed at least 68 al Qaeda militants.)

BBC = Nothing up in headlines on their home page . Last article on the offensive (you know, so you can keep an update on a critical ongoing operation in which our fellow countrymen are dying) was from the 22nd, 4 days ago.

Fox = Nothing in top headlines, last article was from the 23rd. Geeez, nothing from Fox??? And with their Republicon bias, too. So surprising.

ABC online news = A news story on how Senator Richard Lugar is breaking with Bush on his failed policy in Iraq. Iraq, the one thing ABC isn't giving up to date reporting on. No mention of Arrowhead Ripper, and why should there be when you're a news service that's committed to maintaining a narrative that Iraq is a failure?

CBS News = Top story is "Heavy Rains and Winds Slam Texas". No mention of Iraq at all in the headlines. Must not be anything going on there worthy of reporting.

LA Times = No mention of Iraq. No articles containing phrase "Arrowhead Ripper". Nothing.

The New York Times = Finally! A front page article with a picture even! Though at a closer look it is several days old and not up to date. The title is "For GI's in Iraq a Harrowing Day facing a Trap". No bigger picture of the operation, just a 2 pager on a platoon blowing up boobytraped houses. The jist of the entire article is captured in the last lines:

"Lieutenant Morton, the platoon commander, sought to put the hectic, anxiety-filled day in the arc of a long war. He said, “It is one of those days when you’re not doing anything, but stuff happens.” "

I've already posted the links to the likes of Michael Yon and Michael Totten.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/operation-arrowhead-ripper-day-one.htm

Is it me here, or is something seriously deficient on how our media is reporting (or not reporting) this war? Michael Yon's observations with regard to the media are disturbing to say the least. With the exception of a few journalists, the media has all but abandoned the region:

"Alexandra Zavis from Los Angeles Times is down in the heat of the battle bringing home information. Michael Gordon from New York Times is still slugging it out.... CNN has joined the fight. AP came but will stay only a few days. Joe Klein from TIME was here on the 21st and his story posted the same day and was accurate."

That's it? But isn't now when we really need the media to report on the region and our ongoing efforts there? So we can really know about progress towards success or failure?

Evidently not.

If a parent phoned me continually asking for progress on how their son or daughter was doing in class, and I continually focused solely on the negatives without ever mentioning the successes, or where they've improved, I'd be willing to bet that parent would think that their child's progress was poor. On a similar note, here's a new poll presented by CNN on how the American public thinks the war is going:

Today's coverage on the war is the invariable anonymous deaths in unknown places for indeterminate reasons. That's it. That's the hopeless headline pounded home to the American public, that's the message they're supposed to absorb when they check on the daily news:

"More Deaths For No Discernable Cause"

There's something more than a bit absurd about CNN providing grossly inadequate and slanted coverage of the war, but then emphasizing the public's "perception" that progress is going poorly on the war, the very war that they don't really do a decent job of informing their subscribers to begin with. And when it does attempt to inform, it's just body-counts devoid of the cause involved, or what the sacrifices are for.

Can the effort to manipulate public perceptions of the war be any more transparent?

Tokyo Rose couldn't do better. Doubt me? Take a poll and ask your average Joe or Sally if they've heard that Paris Hilton was released from jail, and then ask them if they've heard of Operation Arrowhead. If in the rare chance that you get a positive answer, ask them what the specific goals are for the operation, and whether it's succeeding or not. Then get back to me.

Battle for Iraq

Sadly, you'll never see coverage or read articles like this in the MSM:

http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/06/the_battle_of_iraq_2.php

Or this:

http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/be-not-afraid.htm

Be right back... stepping out for a moment...

Religion of Peace

Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Secretary of the Iranian Guardian Council, which aired on Iranian TV Channel 1 on June 1, 2007

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati: Today, we can see that even in America, people are increasingly inclined towards Islam. In other countries, the Islamic revival has begun. People are increasingly inclined towards the Koran, towards Islam, towards the Islamic Revolution and the Imam [Khomeini]. Just like this movement destroyed the monarchical regime here, it will definitely destroy the arrogant rule of hegemony of America, Israel, and their allies.
At the end of the day, we are an anti-American regime. America is our enemy, and we are the enemies of America. The hostility between us is not a personal matter. It is a matter of principle. We are in disagreement over the very principles that underlie our revolution and our Islam.

Uncivilized Cesspool

Comments from the blog “Breath of the Beat” about a much underreported story concerning how “a huge, open cesspool, part of an immense network of festering waste products has burst this past week and swept away an entire Palestinian village of 25 houses”:

"My Father served in the Merchant Marine during WWII. He told me that at every North African or Eastern Mediterranean port he sailed into, he could smell it from 25 miles out at sea. That smell was the palpable odor of a people trying to live in the modern world with a governmental organization that was not up to the task of providing the services required. The stink that must be emanating from Gaza now is just more of the same."

Back in the day, tribal and incessant warfare was the norm in Europe. Think of the Germanic tribes before they encountered and absorbed the civilizing influence of Christianity. Today, many societies have learned how to live in relative peace and freedom as a result of the revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment project.

When and how will this come to the Middle East?

The answer I feel will remain allusive so long as the explanation as to why the region remains violent and backwards is based on the notions of neocolonial meddling and generations of repression.

To further get my point, read this telling article:

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/11055.htm

Community Activist

Stop crime with vapors!!

BushCo Sponsored GloboDoom

John Edwards thinks the war on terror is an "ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration". You know, something invented by Karl Rove to produce fear in the voters, and get them to vote for the evil Republicons. I was wondering: has Edwards seen a complete list of attempted terrorist plots foiled since 9-11? Does he really believe that Bush or Karl Rove are the puppet masters pulling the strings behind the scenes? Does he really think that efforts by Muslim extremists -as individuals and groups- to kill Americans here and abroad is Bush propaganda?

I couldn't find an easily accessible list, so here's my attempt to create one. Feel free to add anything I've missed:

· December 22 2001: Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines Flight 63, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb.

· July 4 2002: An Egyptian gunman opens fire at an El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport, killing two Israelis before being killed himself.

· The West Coast Airliner Plot: In mid-2002 the U.S. disrupted a plot to attack targets on the West Coast of the United States using hijacked airplanes. The plotters included at least one major operational planner involved in planning the events of 9/11.

· October 2002: John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo conduct the Beltway Sniper Attacks, killing ten people in various locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area from October 2 until they are arrested on October 24.

· The Jose Padilla Plot: In May 2002 the U.S. disrupted a plot that involved blowing up apartment buildings in the United States. One of the plotters, Jose Padilla, also discussed the possibility of using a "dirty bomb" in the U.S.

· May 12 2003: Bombings of United States expatriate housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160 in the Riyadh Compound Bombings. Al-Qaeda blamed.

· Iyman Faris & the Brooklyn Bridge: In 2003, and in conjunction with a partner nation, the U.S. government arrested and prosecuted Iyman Faris, who was exploring the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Faris ultimately pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qa'ida and is now in a federal correctional institution.

· The East Coast Airliner Plot: In mid-2003 the U.S. and a partner disrupted a plot to attack targets on the East Coast of the United States using hijacked commercial airplanes.

· The 2004 U.K. Urban Targets Plot: In mid-2004 the U.S. and partners disrupted a plot that involved urban targets in the United Kingdom. These plots involved using explosives against a variety of sites.

· August 28 2004: Shahawar Matin Siraj and James Elshafay are arrested for planning to bomb the 34th Street–Herald Square subway station in New York City during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

· July 7 2005: London bombings – Bombs explode on one double-decker bus and three London Underground trains, killing 56 people and injuring over 700, occurring on the first day of the 31st G8 Conference. The attacks are the first suicide bombings in Western Europe.

· March 3 2006: Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, an Iranian-born graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, drives an SUV onto a crowded part of campus, injuring nine.

* June 2006: The Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects, apparently inspired by Al-Qaida, who obtained three times the amount of an explosive ingredient used in the Oklahoma City bombing

* July 2006: A terrorist plot to attack transit tunnels under New York's Hudson River was broken up in its early planning stages. Three suspects were arrested overseas, including a Lebanese man the FBI said was an al-Qaeda follower.

· August 10: A major anti-terrorist operation disrupts an alleged bomb plot targeting multiple airplanes bound for the United States flying through Heathrow Airport, near London, UK.

· August 30 2006: An Afghani Muslim hit 19 pedestrians, killing one, with his SUV in the San Francisco Bay area.

· May 7: 2007 Fort Dix attack plot Six men inspired by Jihadist videos arrested in the US, in a failed homegrown terrorism plot to kill US soldiers.

· June 2007: Four men, including a onetime airport cargo handler and a former member of the Parliament of Guyana, were charged yesterday with plotting to blow up fuel tanks, terminal buildings and the web of fuel lines running beneath Kennedy International Airport.

Good Stuff

I thought only in an alternative universe would one ever expect to see another Crowded House album. And yet, here we are:

http://www.crowdedhouseofficial.com/audio.php?id=1&format=wma

Opening w/ Peter Yorn in August at the Pavilion. ANyone?