The "News" Disgusts Me

Is it just me, or has the world gone crazy?

A huge storm system moved through town today, and so I was watching the local news channel for weather info. I left the TV on CBS and ended up watching Katie Couric's "News" cast. The entire thing has been the most insane take on "news" or even "reality" than I have seen yet - we're talking worse than CNN here.

Let me summarize my frustrations with a single segment - coverage on the war in Iraq. It's no question that casualty figures would frame the segment, and every mention of things going well in Iraq followed by the obligatory "but." The segment totally ignored the ongoing military operation in Baqubah and instead claimed with no evidence that the military admitted that top al Qaeda leaders "escaped" from the city. Casualty figures were then reported as if they were independent of the operation (and remember that the old media likes to describe casualty figures as if our solders were just standing around getting killed - but ignoring a 10,000 soldier operation should be criminal). Finally, the correspondent finished by claiming that the "surge" in Iraq was being met with an al Qaeda "surge" of its own as he signed off with the inevitable picture of Iraq citizens bleeding and being carried off on stretchers. "Reporting from the Pentagon" was the only informative thing the reporter said.

This kind of reporting begs the question of whether or not the national old media is honestly trying to deceive and mislead the American people, or whether or not the reporters in the field (or in a posh hotel in D.C.) are so inexorably anti-war and anti-administration that their reports are written in such a way that it seems they want those watching the newscast to think the war in Iraq is lost/our soldiers are dying for nothing/the entire Iraq situation is hopeless.

I absolutely despise the old media. If you watch ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or even FoxNews it's time for you to branch out. The media does not want you to think for yourself - they want to tell you what the world is like and they want you to believe them. Even though they aren't even there to cover it.

A rock could do a better job of reporting the war in Iraq than Katie and her "news" team. Ridiculous.

More bad news

The national and international media is a joke.

First comes the AP (Associated [with Terrorists] Press) and their constant intentional propagation of terrorist propaganda. Now that the civil war in the Gaza Strip is over (with the terrorists winning - it hardly matters which side we're talking about) the AP has decided to print a variety of Hamas propaganda photos, with such sights as a terrorist with an AK coming out of a baggage x-ray machine, and terrorists with AK's and RPG's posed at computer terminals at a border crossing checkpoint in Gaza. These are not news photos, they are terrorist propaganda delightfully captured by terrorist-sympathizing Gaza strip photographers designed and transmitted with the intent to encourage other terrorists or simply emblazon Hamas' "success" to the rest of the world. It's a wonder I won't pay for a newspaper subscription - I'd rather not finance these monsters.

In other news, with word that the Jack Daniel's distillery in Tennessee is running low on water because of a drought, John Roberts of CNN playfully insisted:

...somebody said to me this morning that that will get Southern conservatives interested in global warming. (Laughs)

I ask - is this news? Is this commentary? Is this deliberate disrespect? Is this discrimination? Or is it simple a matter of liberal intellectual elitism and a nasty case of "I'm better than you conservative drunken idiots" syndrome?

The national media is a disgrace.

The Perils of CNN

CNN is best known for being the first major cable channel devoted to 24/7 news coverage. It's polite to say that CNN has fallen off the wagon in the past few years, with its ratings taking a constant nose dive - at time half the viewership of the FoxNews Channel, even in primetime.

Besides loving Bill Clinton, faking stories out of Iraq, and claiming US soldiers are "targeting" civilians, a CNN reporter has just now admitted to paying Nigerian soldiers to fake a news story, so that CNN "has its story" and he "has his fame."

Way to go, CNN. I'm always proud.

What are the Democrats doing?

For all of those who voted for current members of the 110th congress I ask you: are you happy? Are you satisfied with your choice?

After the current Senate Majority Leader went on the national airwaves and proclaimed we had "lost" the war in Iraq, he's now saying that he plans to ignore the commander of American forces in Iraq, General Petraeus, if the general states that the surge of troops in Baghdad is working (and for all intents and purposes it is). Reid, in the same manner as Johnson and Nixon during the Vietnam war, believes that he as a politician is more intelligent and knowledgeable about war and peace than military officials, and that regardless of evidence or expert testimony he knows he is right and everyone who disagrees with him is wrong. How did this man make his way to the top of the Democratic leadership?

Next, after the President vetoes the unconstitutional troop funding bill that decrees our troops leave Iraq within a specific time table, the Democrats have promised to introduce another unconstitutional war funding bill that decrees American troops begin leaving Iraq on October 1st. Would the Democrats please read the Constitution (specifically Article II)?

Now, in the midst of far-left Democratic madness, Dennis Kucinich is introducing articles of impeachment for Vice President Cheney! What!? I watched an interview with Dennis on CNN, and he claimed that he is going after Cheney and not Bush because literally Cheney is worse! What are the charges? That Cheney:

...misled the nation about Iraq's having weapons of mass destruction; he had been deceitful about a nexus between Iraq and Al Qaeda and was being aggressive toward Iran "absent any real threat" from the Islamic Republic.

Dream on, Dennis. Did Cheney manipulate the Senate Intelligence Committee, French, Russian, and British Intelligence too? (Not to mention John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and others...) Was there not a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq before 2003? Is Iran not a threat to world peace and security? Not to mention that are any of these items, if true, "high crimes and misdemeanors"?

Dennis Kucinich, Harry Reid, and the Democrats in congress are rapidly proving to be not only inept, corrupt, and desperately political, but completely and inconsolably insane.

Update: Speaking of insane:

Jim Manley, Reid's spokesman, said earlier that the "war is lost" comment was not in Reid's prepared text for the news conference last Thursday.

It has been almost a week since the majority leader uttered the unscripted remark...

Does it matter that it was "unscripted?" Yes, in that it shows what Reid really thinks outside of what his handlers allow him to say.

"I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with the administration's chief attack dog [Cheney]," Reid said, repeating "attack dog" three times.

Could you be considered certifiably stupid if in the same sentence you claimed to both not resort to "name calling" and call your opponent an "attack dog?"

Reid called Petraeus on Monday to offer his personal support for the troops fighting insurgents in Iraq, according to Reid's office.

Oh! Well, then! In that case Harry probably shouldn't have already said that regardless of what Petraeus says he still thinks the war is lost and the surge isn't working. Harry Reid, it would be best for everyone if you just stopped talking.

Response to a Tragedy

There are a number of ways to respond to the shock of a national calamity. The shootings at Virginia Tech have awakened us in many ways to the lack of morality and Godlessness we see in our everyday lives. Some on the Left have chosen to use this as the calling card for gun control, or the outright repeal of the 2nd Amendment. Some on the Right have taken the opportunity to decry the foolishness in supposed "gun-free zones" and the lack of personal responsibility required of young adults in America.

Some, such as David Skorton, the president of Cornell and former president of the University of Iowa, and Betty Trachtenberg, the dean of students at Yale, have use the tragedy to advance their idiotic notions of morality and justice. Skorton has made calls for the country to honor the "33rd victim," the murderer of innocents as "a member of our family." The dean of students at Yale has used the shootings at Virginia tech to ban all weapons from campus - including fake ones used in dramatic productions. She then amended the ban so that students could use "obviously fake" weapons such as wooden swords in productions.

What really needs to be done? We need a culture of intellectual discourse and defense. Physical defense will follow intellectual defense, but in so many ways our institutions of higher learning do nothing to teach responsibility and logical discourse in the name of "diversity," "multiculturalism," or "sensitivity." We need college students to understand that the institutions will not and can not protect them - not from physical harm or unwanted intellectual stimulus. Students are adults and claiming colleges can protect them is both untrue and unwise. Finally, we must be "realistic about reality" and acknowledge that "gun-free zones" and attacks on our rights as Americans to bear arms does nothing to secure ourselves or our students safety. CNN anchors that accuse the gun store proprietor of murder never questioned the fertilizer store owner who sold ammonium nitrate in Oklahoma City or blamed the presidential administration for Columbine. Crime will not be stopped by preventing citizens from arming themselves, because the law-breakers won't stop buying guns when it becomes illegal.

What response is necessary? Remember that you are responsible for yourself, and that you have only one comfort in life and in death.

Guns aren't bad

In a day in age when guns are targeted as the reasons for violence in our society, and everyone from politicians to CNN anchors are calling for gun control or the outright repeal of the 2nd Amendment, we have this story to remind us of an example of a law-abiding citizen exercising her right to possess firearms:

Venus Ramey has earned lots of fame in her 82 years.

She was Miss America 1944 and later a candidate for Cincinnati City Council and worked to save Over-the-Rhine's historic buildings. She performed on Broadway and in movies.

Now, though, she's in the news for another reason.

After confronting a man she said was stealing from her Kentucky farm, Ramey pulled out a gun and shot out a tire on his truck so he couldn't leave, allowing police to arrest him and two others.

"He was probably wetting his pants," Ramey said Thursday from her home in Waynesburg, about 140 miles south of Cincinnati.

She had to balance on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it. If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."

Return of the "Old Trick"

There are literally hundreds of photos of Condoleeza Rice in Baghdad over the weekend. Hundreds. Can you guess which picture CNN decided to display of the Secretary of State last Saturday?

Like I said, it's an old trick.

Obama or Osama?

Today marks the second time that CNN accidentally referred to Barak Obama as "Osama."

Not only is the mistake ridiculous, but where is the outcry? When Fox News accidentally labeled Mark Foley as a Democrat the Left went wild. Where is the outrage?

It's official: the AP is making it up

A few months ago the AP used a source named "Jamil Hussein" to describe the brutal murder of six Iraqis. This story of Iraqis being burned alive could not be corroborated by a single other source. A quick search of the AP's former stories about Iraq began to turn up this "Jamil Hussein" as the lone source for a number of murder stories concerning Iraqi citizens.

It's now official, from the former head of CNN's news bureau: "Jamil Hussein" does not exist.

Don't count on the AP's quick response.

The First Casualty of the Democratic Congress

And it won't be the last:

John Bolton resigns when his recess appointment is up.

What's unfortunate is that John Bolton has done at the UN what all fail to do - something. John is resigning because the Democrats don't like him. Why, because he fights anti-semitism? He sticks up for the people of the US? He has a big mustache?

When the Republicans pulled the "Gang of 14" stunt in order to play nice with the Democrats they should have known they would never see the same courtesy from a Democratic congress. The Democrats are not interested in national security or playing nice - they are interested in power, and in being Democrats. John Bolton is the first casualty, as is our ability to stand up to the international toothless-watchdog bully that is the current UN.

UPDATE: CNN claims Bolton is "controversial." The only thing that should be controversial is the Senate's unwillingness to vote on Bolton. From the President:

[I am] deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."

"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."

Indeed. [Idioit] Biden responds:

The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."

This would be true, if Bolton had ever been considered to begin with. They must really be terrified of that mustache...

Ka-pow!

It looks like I spoke too soon. I saw this link on Drudge yesterday, but CNN had conveniently removed it. (I wonder why?) It seems that Nancy Pelosi, not content to completely annihilate her party before January, gave it one more kick in the head:

Asked by a reporter about how “President Bush today blamed the surge of violence in Iraq on al Qaeda,” incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded with a disjointed answer about how “the 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion a long time ago and I feel sad that the President is resorting to it again."

What? Two things here: 1) the 9/11 Commission said that there was no link between 9/11 and Iraq, but made explicit the connections between Iraq and al Qaeda. 2) Anyone who thinks al Qaeda is not operating in Iraq now is going to have some trouble going along with Democratic talking points (and reality).

Pelosi is making it too easy. Does she not realize what she's doing to her party?

October Surprises

Just about one week left before the mid-term elections and everyone's favorite newspaper, the NY Times, has decided to print on page one a collage of photos from soldiers' funerals in Arlington National Cemetery. Just before this, Newsweek elected to print emails from a soldier recently killed in Iraq - emails that criticize the Bush administration and look bleakly on the future of the Iraqi military.

There can be no doubt that these "stories" are intended to be October surprises. The media is now in a full-court press to remove the Republicans from congressional leadership. It's clear that they haven't published photos of soldiers' funerals before, nor reported on a single email among the hundreds of thousands that show the soldiers' support for and belief in the war. Actually, it's laughable at this point to attempt to explain away these stories as anything but a vein attempt at the media to influence the political beliefs of the American people.

Of course, the American people are not necessarily buying it. With new reports that newspaper circulation is still in a nose-dive, Americans are looking to alternative sources for non-biased (or at least not liberally-biased) news. Were fed up with the fabrications, the "anonymous sources" and the lack of the media's ability to choose sides. One commenter for the Newsweek article wrote:

Is he one of the fine Americans that CNN gleefully showed getting killed by snipers? To all those in harm's way - there are plenty back here that pray for you every day and want you to win, although you won't find them on the TV or in "news."

And that's the story that no one is reporting.

Ms. Cheney vs. the Liberal Media

Lynne Cheney was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer tonight and was the victim of a typical liberal media ambush. Wolf, instead of asking about her new best selling children's book, decided to attempt to repeat Democratic talking points, and claim the Vice President is in bad health.

However, Mrs. Cheney came prepared, as Wolf later admitted. Here are a few relevant sections:

LC: You made a point last night of a man who had a bookstore in London, where radical Islamists gathered, who was in Afghanistan when the Taliban were there, who went to Pakistan. I think that you might be a little careful before you declare this as a person with clean hands.

WB: You’re referring to the CNN Broken Government special…

LC: I certainly am.

WB: This was the one that John King reported on last night.

LC: You know, right there, right there, Wolf. Broken Government. Now what kind of stance is that? Here we are, we’re a country where we have been mightily challenged over the past six years. We’ve been through 9/11. We’ve been through Katrina. The President and the Vice President inherited a recession. We’re a country where the economy is healthy. That’s not broken. This government has acted very well. We’ve had tax cuts that are responsible for our healthy economy. We’re a country that was attacked five years ago. We haven’t been attacked since. What this government has done is effective. That’s not broken government. So you know, I shouldn’t let media bias surprise me, but I worked at CNN once. I watched the program last night…

WB: You were a co-host of Crossfire.

LC: …and I was troubled.

WB: All right. Well, that was probably the purpose, to get people to think, to get people to discuss these issues, because there are a lot of conservatives…

LC: All right, all right, Wolf. I’m here to talk about my book. But if you want to talk about distortion…

WB: We’ll talk about your book.

LC: Right. But what is CNN doing running terrorist tape of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I thought Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question, and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?

WB: The answer, of course, is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about that. You think we want terrorists to win?

LC: Then why are you running terrorist propaganda?

WB: With all due respect, with all due respect, this is not terrorist propaganda.

LC: Oh, Wolf…

WB: This is reporting the news, which is what we do. We’re not partisan…

LC: Where did you get the film?

WB: We got the film…look, this is an issue that has been widely discussed, this is an issue that we reported on extensively. We make no apologies for showing that. That was a very carefully considered decision, why we did that. And I think, and I think, of your…

LC: Well, I think it’s shocking.

Go ahead and read it all. As a few commentators have said, without taking credit from Lynne Cheney, a lot of these political pundits (a.k.a journalists) are simply not too smart. Using a credible and thought-out argument truly puts them in their place. Wolf's whiny little diatribe at the end about Mrs. Cheney being "armed" is representative of his complete bewilderment in not being able to verbally and intellectually dominate her. I guess Wolf should start listening to people that he disagrees with.

Delusions of Objectivity

CNN's Jack Cafferty has been given a six-part special to look at "Broken Government." In the weeks leading up to the election Jack is doing a "news" special that describes how:

We're being bled to death, literally and figuratively in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have no border security to speak of, no port security fives year after 9/11, Social Security and Medicare well on their way to insolvency. Our national debt is staggering.

China is kicking our butt. Like I said, had enough? Our leaders lie to us and steal from us, and do it all with a straight face. They don't think we get it. I think we do. I honestly think the upcoming midterm elections will be breathtaking in the message that deliver to Washington. It's my fervent hope that every single incumbent on the ballot will lose. It's time to start over.

This is a "news" story. Did you get that - a "news" story.

If anyone still thinks that CNN is a serious and non-biased non-partisan news agency they need to take a deep breath of reality.

CNN is the enemy

How many times has it been now? CNN is now broadcasting terrorist death porn, also known as footage of terrorist snipers killing American troops. The chairman of the House Armed Services committee, Duncan Hunter, is now calling for the Pentagon to withdrawal all embedded CNN reporters.

Good idea.

The LA Times covers the story from within the same mindset:

Embedded reporters sign pledges not to show the faces of dead American troops until their families are notified, but nothing prohibits the use of pictures in which identities are not discernible.

And nothing prevents reporters from taking sides in a war - which neither CNN or the LA Times seems willing to do.

Police State

Did you forget what a police state is? It's when journalists that criticize the government end up dead - not on CNN.

Why am I not surprised?

Hugo Chavez is speaking at the UN today.

I'm watching it live, and the Venezuelan dictatorial holocaust-denying Iranian-terror-buddy lunatic began by holding up a book by Noam Chomsky, and encouraging everyone to read the book as a way to understand the danger of the "sword" of the "American Empire."

He then called George W. Bush "the devil" and crossed himself to the raucous laughter of the UN General Assembly. He also claimed that the UN Assembly hall still "smelled of sulfur" and that a psychologist should be brought in to analyze the President.

It's disgusting, what this work body has descended to. It's time to pull our support from the UN.

Update: Support John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the UN. His response to Hugo's nutso rant? It's interesting that Chavez can say anything he wants, but the people of Venezuela have no such freedom of speech. Even the CNN anchors couldn't argue with that.

August 22?

Have you heard about the recent hoopla about the 22nd of August? It's the day that Iranian tyrannical anti-Semitic dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that he will give the US and our allies his "response" to our demand that he stop enriching uranium. Due to Ahmadinejad's repeated threats towards the United States and repeated statements advocating for the destruction of Israel, a number of people are now wondering what exactly is going to happen on August 22.

To coincide with the "cease-fire" between a sovereign democratic nation (Israel) and a group of terrorist thugs (Hezbollah) Lebanon's ambassador to the UN made some interesting statements this weekend.

"Lebanon will be, I think, the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel," UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television's "Late Edition" program, without explaining the remark.

The last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel? By this, does he mean that Lebanon will never sign one, or if the "cease-fire" is a peace treaty, that Israel won't be around to receive another one?

I'm more than a bit concerned. I hope people are paying attention.

CNN Spews Terrorist Propaganda

CNN put an article up yesterday describing a mass burial in Lebanon. The reporter admits that there were more reporters there than those being buried, and also admits that they were "invited."

We already know that Hezbollah (along with many Islamic terrorist groups) are masters of the media and propaganda. They know just what to do to look good for the cameras, including bogus tours of damage and fake ambulances.

The clear propaganda message in this article comes from descriptions of "maggots" and "blood" seeping from a body bag.

To those of you who don't know, strict Muslims bury their dead as soon as possible, nearly eliminating the need for embalming as most burials take place within 24 hours. Maggots take about 4 days to mature to the point and multiply to the number to be "pouring" from a body bag. Next, if blood was still running from the bag as well, there is no way maggots would have had time to develop. Therefore, what you have in this story proves that 1) those being buried were not strict Muslims, 2) the scene is staged or 3) the CNN reporter is lying.

I don't mean to negate civilian casualties - each death in this conflict is a tragedy. However, this blatant passing on or outright creation of false terrorist propaganda is inexcusable by any news outlet - especially CNN. It's clear to me that modern war is based on propaganda - and thanks to CNN anyone who fights terrorists ususally loses.

What's wrong with the news?

CNN's Nic Robertson ran a story last week from the ravaged streets of Lebanon. He was being directed by a Hezbollah terrorist propaganda artist and told him exactly where he could go and what he could see. The Hezbollah thug repeated over and over "shoot this" and "look at this" and "does this look like a military building?" The whole shoot consisted of Nic admitting that it appeared Israelis had attacked a purely civilian neighborhood.

Now Nic has come out and said that his segments was completely controlled by Hezbollah:

Hezbollah has “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations,” that the terrorist group “had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath,” and he even contradicted Hezbollah’s self-serving spin: “There's no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities.”

Even though Nic painfully admitted what really happened, the damage has been done. No one watches Reliable Sources on CNN to see that Nic's original segment was compromised. And the lies go on.

Also, what kind of journalist allows himself to be used for propaganda purposes? He could have filmed the footage, and broadcast to CNN later - not right away when he was forced to report Hezbollah propaganda and lies. How can these people still be employed, and how can they live with the terrible work they do?

Update: Surprisingly, CNN's Anderson Cooper blasted through Hezbollah's propaganda wall in his report from inside Beirut. He described in detail how Hezbollah controlled what parts of the city were filmed. He also described how the areas attacked were civilian areas, but nevertheless were where Hezbollah works from. He included descriptions of Israeli leaflets warning civilians to leave certain areas before an attack came.

His most brazen effort to thwart Hezbollah propaganda was his description of "dummy" ambulances, staged by Hezbollah to race through the streets of Beirut at controlled interviews so the press would photograph them. Amazing. Props to Cooper for not being a media chump.