Left I on the News

North Korean nuclear test threat - fact or fiction?

However, it turns out that an AFP report on the same day reported the following:

Russia's top negotiator on North Korea on Friday denied claims by US officials that Pyongyang had threatened to conduct a nuclear test during crisis talks in Beijing.

"The North Korean delegation did not make such a declaration" at the Beijing talks, RIA Novosti quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying.

Get out of the way?

I doubt Tom McClintock and I agree on a single issue, but I'm sure we agree on this - it isn't the place of a Mercury News headline writer to suggest that he is "in the way" of anything.

The entire concept of "spoilers" would disappear in an instant if California were to adopt Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) (scroll about halfway down the page), which would allow McClintock voters to have their votes automatically transferred to their second choice if McClintock didn't win, and would ensure that the winner of the election actually had a majority of voters supporting them (even if only as a second choice). Even though the next California governor could theoretically win with the votes of less than 1% (!) of actual voters, not a single candidate other than the Green Party's Peter Camejo, nevertheless any newscaster, commentator, columnist, or editorial writer, has seen fit to mention IRV as the solution to this problem (not to the immediate problem of this particular election, obviously, but the longer-term solution).

Blair admits lies, media yawns

Tony Blair was forced to admit yesterday that he was personally responsible for Dr David Kelly's identity being disclosed, in direct contradiction to his denial at the time of the scientist's death.

During his much-awaited, historic appearance before the Hutton inquiry, the Prime Minister conceded his central role in the process that led to Dr Kelly's name being confirmed to the media.

The hearing was also told that Mr Blair was the first member of his administration to reveal outside Whitehall that an official had come forward as the source of the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan's claim that the Government had "sexed up" the Iraq weapons dossier. He broke the news to Gavyn Davies, the BBC chairman, in a telephone call early on the morning of Sunday 7 July, more than 24 hours before the information was made public in a press statement issued by the Ministry of Defence. Mr Davies refused Mr Blair's request to retract Mr Gilligan's report.

During, by the Prime Minister's own account, an extremely busy time for him in both domestic politics and international diplomacy, he found the time to "scan" the MoD press statement, after it had been passed to his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell. He also chaired a series of meetings in Downing Street solely to discuss what to do about Dr Kelly.

What was decided at the meetings set off the chain of events that was to lead to the public exposure of Dr Kelly to an intense media spotlight, to his appearance before two parliamentary committees and to his death.

Mr Blair told the inquiry that he had been guided by senior civil servants over the affair. But he added: "The responsibility is mine, at the end of the day. I take the decision as Prime Minister, but I wanted to be able to say that we had played it by the book."

Just over five weeks ago, on learning of Dr Kelly's apparent suicide during an official flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong, the Prime Minister had "categorically" and "emphatically" denied he had played a part in revealing the scientist's name.

Of course, this has special significance not just because Blair has now admitted lying, but because of the many other things about which Blair has been "categorical" and "emphatic." Recall, for example, his speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress in which he said he believes "with every fiber in my body" that the war was justified. Or his continuing claim that he still believes the famous "45-minute" claim was "perfectly justified." Slowly but surely, the wall is crumbling, the curtain is being pulled back (pick your own metaphor).

Innumeracy in the media

Then, over in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a story about a computer programmer who has said that "she and a few expert friends could crack Georgia's $54 million touch-screen voting system in a matter of minutes," we read that "Brit Williams, a retired Kennesaw State University professor who helped design the state's touch-screen security system...put the odds of corrupting the software undetected at 1 billion to one." News flash for Professor Williams - there are no "odds" of this happening. Since this event (the attempt to hack the system) isn't going to happen a billion times, nor are there "sub-events" from which one can calculate the probability of a larger "joint event," this statement is completely unscientific. What he means is that he thinks that it's very unlikely that they will succeed. He should say so. If he really thinks the "odds" are a "billion to one", then I've got a dollar I'd like to put up as a bet.

Quote of the Day - Tom Tomorrow

But boy, did those people [who bought the administration lies which led to the invasion of Iraq] ever get played. The honest ones are beginning to acknowledge it, the rest are busy trying to convince themselves that the mountain of bullshit they bought is actually delicious ice cream, and never mind that weird smell.

The Stalin School of Falsification

Nice work if you can get it

The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday said it paid out almost $140 million to Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Grasso in accrued savings, benefits and incentives, and extended his contract until 2007. The exchange said...it provides for the same base salary of $1.4 million and the same annual bonus of at least $1 million.

Fox News - Not even close to being Fair and Balanced

By the way, note how Hume refers to the "citizens" of California rather than "residents." Presumably he's aware that there are one heck of a lot of people in California who aren't citizens, but considers them not worth worrying about. Maybe he figures they should be worth 3/5 of a person, kind of like the original U.S. Constitution view of black people.

Missing stories

A few months ago, Britain had 46,000 troops in Iraq; that's now down to at most 14,000, and possibly fewer. Australia had 2,000 troops in Iraq, they are either entirely or almost entirely gone. Remember reading about those troop reductions in the U.S. press? I sure don't.

So often, it's not just what you read, but what you don't read.

Paying for war crimes - $16 billion to restore Iraq's water

But what was it that happened 13 years ago, and what was it that was happening during the last 13 years? You won't find out listening to or reading the U.S. mainstream media, not a word. What happened 13 years ago, in fact, was that a major war crime was committed, on a scale of staggering proportions - the U.S. deliberately and systematically destroyed the Iraqi water system. Article 54 of the Geneva convention states:

"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."

Was this an accident? A surprise to the U.S.? Any civilized person might like to think so, but, sadly, the answer is absolutely no. In 2000, Professor Thomas Nagy of George Washington University managed to obtain military documents written before the Gulf War. These documents make absolutely clear that the U.S. had studied in detail all aspects of Iraq's water system, had planned a strategy for preventing Iraq from reconstructing that system (via the sanctions), and knew in advance that "this could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics of disease."

What happened in Iraq during the Gulf War was a deliberate war crime, one of the greatest in history, without any question. A half million children died as a result of that war crime, and now the people of the U.S. will end up paying $16 billion to pay for that crime. The war criminals, meanwhile, continue to be "respected" citizens.

Fixing the grid with voodoo economics

Now I don't have a degree in economics, but this doesn't make any sense at all. If the power companies could lower their costs by $500 per customer per year, then wouldn't it make sense for them to invest the $100 per customer per year to do that, keep their prices the same, and pocket the extra $400 per customer per year as profit? Isn't that the way capitalism works? For any business, an "ROI" (return on investment) of 400% would be the holy grail. And it's not as if money is tight and the utilities would have any trouble borrowing the money to get started - interest rates are at something like 47-year lows, and banks are desperate to find customers who actually want to borrow money to invest.

Of course, if they (the companies with the help of the media) can convince consumers that we have to pay in advance, then in the future they can come up with an excuse why prices can't be lowered, and pocket the entire amount. That's really the way capitalism works.

Quote of the Day - Schwarzenegger

"Gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman." - Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Sean Hannity radio show

While we're on the subject of humor, if you aren't familiar with the political humorists listed in our links, take some time and check them out. Each and every one of them is a gem. In particular today I'll recommend you visit Mark Fiore, whose animated cartoons are unlike anything anyone else is doing. His latest effort, "Summer Tour", is about Ashcroft, and is only good, but if you browse through his "Animation Gallery" you will find some things which are absolutely priceless. Because he uses "flash animation," you'll probably need a "modern" operating system like OS X or Windows XP, but if you can handle that, make sure to check him out.

Journalists Find "Calm" When Only Palestinians Die - FAIR

During this six-week period of "relative quiet," [in July and early August] however, some 17 Palestinians were killed and at least 59 injured by Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Political jokes of the day

"Well, we're all excited because President Bush has started his 35-day vacation. He's down there in Crawford, Texas and on the first day of his vacation he went fishing. He didn't find any fish but he believes they're there and that his intelligence is accurate." --David Letterman

"President Bush's economic team is now on their jobs and growth bus tour all across America. I think the only job they created so far is for the guy driving the bus." --Jay Leno

"President Bush has refused to declassify portions of the congressional 9/11 reports about the Saudis, because he says it will help the enemy. Not Al Qaeda, the Democrats." --Jay Leno

Lying about Arianna

Judy Woodruff - Fair and Balanced

Those wacky polls

Russia booming?

Unfortunately, Kristof seems not to have read his own column, which contains the following items: the Ukraine experienced a total economic decline of 59 percent (!) after the fall of the Soviet Union, "ordinary people commemorate not new freedoms but deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, and drunkenness," life expectancy has fallen, and "work is so elusive that it is possible to hire a person for $1 a day." It's been more than ten years since the fall of the Soviet Union, and Kristof's one-time family home (now used as a village office) lacks not only indoor plumbing but even an outhouse, and Kristof is still blaming communism for this.

Even the growth Kristof touts (presumably of the GNP, although he never says) is a less than meaningful statistic when you start from an extremely low base (remember the decline of 59 percent). Lots of startup dot-com companies had growth of 1000% in their first year. As in the United States, while unemployment is rising, budgets for schools and hospitals are being cut, and people's lives are not improving, talk of "growth" is just that, talk.

Headlines can be so revealing

Followup: I didn't think it could get worse, but it has. Over on MSNBC, the anchor reporting the story on the noon news led off with this: "Israel made good today on it's promise to continue targeting Hamas members." "Made good"? Could we bias the viewer any more, do you think? Over on the MSNBC web site, it's a similar story: "Deadly Israeli strike misses target." Well, at least the killing and the injuries made the subhead and weren't relegated to the story itself as they were in the Times and the Post.

More followup: I didn't make this explicit above, but read the headlines from the Times and the Post carefully. Notice anything? Not only don't they mention the victims of this attack, but they even euphemize the targets. In the Times, missiles are just being fired at the "Gaza Strip" (pretty big target); in the Post, they're being fired at a car. But not at actual people.

Iraq - the ever-changing (?) story

All seems pretty clear, right? Lots of details like "stealing power cables" and "armed Iraqis in a truck" to make you think it couldn't possibly be pure fiction. Until this from the Danish press:

A Danish soldier who died last week after a shooting in Iraq was reportedly shot by his own [troops] in an attack on unarmed fishermen. Danish defence authorities are investigating the incident at the moment. Danish TV channel TV 2 reports that Pedersen's fellow soldiers mistook him for one of the Iraqis, and that the Iraqis were not thieves but unarmed fishermen. Two of them were killed by the Danes.

Out-and-out lies about casualties in Iraq

The article also contains an accidental commentary on the question of "supporting the troops." One soldier is now missing his right arm and has a smashed left ankle and foot because "he and his friend drove off base to buy some soda from peddlers on the streets of Baghdad." So despite the rhetoric from war supporters, they don't even "support the troops" enough to provide them with enough soda to keep them from getting killed or injured like this soldier. Of course, sending soda to Iraq isn't what's needed to solve this problem - bringing the soldiers home now is the only real solution.

Laying the groundwork for the next (?) war

Appearing on the Larry King show yesterday, Bill Maher referred to Kim Jong Il as "Little Kim," (I know Maher is a comedian, but this kind of figurative and in this case literal belittlement is hardly limited to him) and told how a German doctor returned from North Korea and claimed that a "holocaust" was taking place there. Maher talked about people "starving to death," but of course, if they were just starving due to a poor economy or drought or similar reasons, the proper response would be for the world to rush in food aid to prevent people from dying. But to Maher, what is happening in North Korea is "evil" we can't "tolerate," which, when coupled with a German referring to a "holocaust," certainly gives the listener the impression that the government is systematically killing or "ethnically cleansing" its own people. Of course nothing of the kind is happening in North Korea.

Meanwhile, over in the San Jose Mercury News, Karl Schoenberger (the Mercury News' Asia-Pacific correspondent who has covered Korea and Japan for the past 20 years), has his own "fun," asking whether North Korea is like the country in "The Mouse That Roared," pretending it has the "Q-bomb" in order to get aid and attention. Here are some of the phrases we find littered throughout this deadly (potentially, quite literally) article: "threaten[ing] the world with nuclear blackmail," "Kim's paranoia," "kicking out weapons inspectors in a tantrum," "recklessness," "obstreperous mouse." This kind of juvenile language is what passes for serious journalism on the subject of North Korea - the article was accorded the respect of nearly a full page in the "Perspective" section of the paper, starting on the first page on the upper right.

"Nuclear blackmail"? North Korea has never once threatened to use nuclear weapons except in self-defense. Only one country in the world has not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in a first-strike situation - you guessed it, the United States.

"Paranoia"? I hate to state the obvious, but "maybe you're not paranoid, maybe they really are out to get you" as the saying goes. Surely, given the American record in Afghanistan and Iraq (and a host of other countries before that), thinking that there is a possibility that the U.S. might attack North Korea and, if you are North Korea, trying to do something about that could hardly be considered "paranoia."

A "tantrum"? North Korea is a country, who made a decision that they thought was in their best interests. It's the Bush administration which has been throwing its toys (unfortunately, deadly weapons) around the world like a baby out of control.

"Recklessness"? Let's see, let's name all the countries North Korea has invaded in the last 40 years. Hmm, let me think. OK, it's coming to me...none. OK, now let's name all the countries that the U.S. has invaded, bombed, or helped in the overthrow of their government in just the last decade or two: Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty more. And we're going to say that it's North Korea who is reckless?

"Obstreperous mouse"? Let's see, "noisily and stubbornly defiant, "aggressively boisterous." Just which country is it that fits those descriptions? North Korea, who has been peacefully minding its own business? Or the U.S., which insists on describing North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" that must be dealt with and clearly is threatening military action? The "mouse" goes right along with Maher's "Little Kim" and George Bush calling Kim a "pygmy" - the kind of insults we expect to find in the third grade, not in serious political discourse.

I saved the best and most serious (although in some ways the funniest) section for last. Schoenberger writes this:

What's required is a willingness to chip away at Kim's post-Iraq paranoia by responding seriously to his shrill and unbending demand for a "non-aggression pact.'' No U.S. president would sign such an agreement, and Congress would never ratify it. But the U.S. delegation could break the ice by making an unambiguous statement that America does not intend to strike militarily at North Korea.

The statement would carry more weight than past assurances because it would be witnessed in a formal context by North Korea's sympathetic former benefactors, China and Russia, who are party to the talks along with U.S. allies South Korea and Japan.

Readers can make up their own minds about the nature of the North Korean state, I won't address that here. But whatever your opinion on that front, you should be aware that the ground is being prepared, and your minds are being prepared, to make North Korea the next "enemy" "threatening our national security" and "putting us at great risk" who we "must" invade or take other military action against immediately. It is up to those of us who can see through these lies to make sure this doesn't happen.

Followup: Oops! I don't know how I misread that quote, but it's actually worse than I thought! Schoenberger didn't say a "statement from Congress" was the answer, he says that a statement from the "U.S. delegation" would do it. Carrying even less weight on the already weightless scale.

Keeping editorial writers honest

Here's what he says about the Washington Times:

"According to a Gallup Poll released yesterday, 86 percent of Americans continue to be certain, or at least believe it is likely, that before the war Iraq not only had the facilities to develop weapons of mass destruction, but that it also possessed biological or chemical weapons," reads a June 17 editorial. Translation: If John Q. Public doesn't feel hoodwinked, where's the crisis?

A "clean" hit?

One wonders what was being "prevented" by the murder of three people who were not even accused (nevertheless convicted) of any crime (nevertheless any crime punishable by death). Indeed, writing in today's NY Times, James Bennet reports: "An Israeli security official acknowledged that the missile strike would increase violence. 'There is almost no doubt about that.'"

Who's responsible for ending the ceasefire?

Still more curious news editing

Quote of the Day - George Bush

The terrorists that struck today again showed their contempt for the innocent.

Unreported casualties and misreported deaths in Iraq - the story continues

Jesus Vidana dropp[ed] like a rock when shrapnel crashed through his helmet and into his skull on April 8 during during a fierce street fight in Baghdad...His head wound was so severe that their commander radioed he was dead...Cpl. Vidana, 25, survived and has undergone three operations and months of rehabilitation to learn all over again how to feed himself, talk and walk. A fourth surgery is scheduled to remove more shrapnel from his brain...He is among 17 Marine reservists from Fox Company, drawn mainly from Utah and Nevada, awarded Purple Hearts for wounds received in combat.

They are called WIAs for wounded in action, but their numbers are not listed under casualty postings from the U.S. Central Command or the Pentagon. Reporters must specifically ask for those tallies...So far, 1,007 U.S. military personnel have been wounded since March 19 when U.S. troops crossed the border into Iraq, said Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald from Central Command. That number compares with 467 "nonmortal wounds" in the 1991 Gulf War, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.."I know of no other war in which WIAs have not been listed among the casualties," said Robert Voyles, director of the Fort Douglas Museum. "I have no idea why this conflict would be any different." Fitzgerald said WIA numbers are not publicized because the military has no way of determining the severity of the wounds. "Someone could get a couple of stitches for a cut and return to duty that same afternoon," he said. "That's why we give these numbers on a response basis to reporters."

Meanwhile over in the Telluride (Co.) Daily Planet (!), we read:

The press has gone along with the U.S. government's specious policy of separating out deaths caused by hostile action and KIAs from accidents, friendly fire and the like. Aside from the message it sends to the friends and kinfolk of such dead G.I.s, it is dishonest - a blatant attempt to minimize the losses our soldiers are taking over there.

In one incident, a Humvee racing to the scene of an ambush on the notorious Baghdad Airport road crashed, and one of the men in it died. He wasn't included in the weekly figures of Americans killed in Iraq.

This is ridiculous, totally bogus, and, again, an insult to the man and those who mourn him.

Jenin, Jenin

But if you get lucky, and you do get a chance to see the movie, don't miss it. And, if you have the opportunity to put on a showing yourself to your group or in your town, do that too (click on the film title above to get contact info). The Israelis, the U.S. government, and, sadly, most of the world wants you to forget what happened in Jenin. They want you to concentrate on trivial issues like "does the number of people killed there qualify as a 'massacre' or not?" rather than on the real issues - the continued oppression of the Palestinian people, and the countless war crimes committed by the Israeli army in the course of that oppression. This film will help you remember.

Quote of the Day - George Bush

We've got about 10,000 troops there [in Afghanistan], which is down from, obviously, major combat operations.

Now can we forget about May 1?

So there we have it, nothing changed on May 1 other than our impression of George Bush as a swaggering popinjay. Now will the media please give up the totally unjustified compartmentalization of soldiers deaths in Iraq, and report the true extent of coalition deaths (316 as of this writing) rather than the bogus 5x lower "since May 1" number?

Just 5 words

From the Committee to Protect Journalists, part of Dana's story:

In May 2000, Dana was shot in the leg with a rubber-coated bullet while filming Palestinian youths throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. Two months later, Jewish settlers beat him unconscious while he tried to film a conflict. The next day, an Israeli police officer slammed Dana's head in the rear door of an ambulance while he was filming the evacuation of a Palestinian youth wounded in clashes. Dana was shot again last October, in the same leg, two days in a row.

More followup: Thanks to Arash from Afghan Voice, this link to video footage of Mazen Dana being shot by Israeli soldiers.

Depleted uranium - another MIA (Missing in America) story

Followup: From a reader, two more stories. One prewar story (or post-Gulf War I story, more accurately) from the San Jose Mercury News, and a second, very recent, story from the Christian Science Monitor. The latter just the type of story that should have been, but wasn't, picked up by other media outlets.

Pursuing the "Just 16 words"

President George W Bush chaired two National Security Council (NSC) meetings in December 2002 where "the lead item on the agenda was to settle on an official response" to Iraq's UN-mandated inventory of weapons.

These meetings took place on the mornings of Dec. 18th and 19th. On the afternoon of the 19th, the US released its response to Iraq's report. Under the heading "Nuclear Weapons," a State Department "fact sheet" stated:

"The [Iraqi] Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger. -- Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?" This State Department fact sheet was the only official US response to Iraq's weapons report. The obvious, unavoidable conclusion is that it must have been discussed at these NSC meetings, where the President holds the gavel. If so, then this statement about uranium from Niger was either tacitly or explicitly approved by the President and the National Security Council.

Judith Miller & the New York Times

We don't have full 20/20 hindsight yet, but we do know for certain that all the sensational disclosures in Miller's major stories between late 2001 and early summer, 2003, promoted disingenuous lies. There were no secret biolabs under Saddam's palaces; no nuclear factories across Iraq secretly working at full tilt. A huge percentage of what Miller wrote was garbage, garbage that powered the Bush administration's propaganda drive towards invasion.

What does that make Miller? She was a witting cheer-leader for war. She knew what she was doing. And what does Miller's performance make the New York Times?

The shifting sands of the Mideast

Propaganda/Prop-agenda

Irony - 1, Truth - 0

Evidently this "one Republican" wasn't around for the State of the Union address, which fell about 98% short of the 100% target, not to mention hundreds of other speeches including the "he wouldn't let them in" claim and many, many others. Compounding the irony of this ludicrous claim, the article reports that one of the people huddling with Bush while he was deciding on what to say was Stephen J. Hadley, one of the several people who fell on their sword over Niger-gate.

As a side note, this column pointed out several days ago that no one could possibly have been 100% sure that the blackout wasn't caused by terrorism after just 4 1/2 hours, since the cause and even the origin of the blackout still isn't "100% certain" as this is written.

Quote of the Day - Bruce Springsteen

Lying the country into war isn't a Republican or a Democratic thing, because both of them have done it. Asking whether we were misled into a war where our sons and daughters are dying isn't a liberal question or a conservative question, it's an American question. The truth will out.

Bruce Springsteen, Pacbell Park, San Francisco, CA, Aug. 16, 2003

[Ed. note - this quotation is from memory; if anyone reading this happens to have been recording things, and can provide the exact wording, I'll be happy to replace this with the exact quote. The gist, however, is as above.]

Heat waves

Yet another MIA (Missing in America) story - Yugoslavia as a precedent for Iraq

"Iraq was not the first illegal US-led attack on a sovereign state in recent times. The precedent was set in 1999 in Yugoslavia...Yugoslavia was a sovereign state with internationally recognised borders; an unsolicited intervention in its internal affairs was excluded by international law. The US-led onslaught was therefore justified as a humanitarian war - a concept that most international lawyers regarded as having no legal standing...In Yugoslavia, as in Iraq, the ultimate goal of the aggressor nations was regime change. In Iraq, the justification for aggression was the possession of weapons of mass destruction; in Yugoslavia, it was the prevention of a humanitarian crisis and genocide in Kosovo. In both cases, the evidence for such accusations has been lacking...Despite claims by western leaders that Yugoslav forces were conducting "genocide" against the Kosovan Albanians, reports of mass killings and atrocities...were often later admitted to be wrong. Atrocities certainly were carried out by both Serb and KLA forces. But investigative teams did not find evidence of the scale of dead or missing claimed at the time, responsibility for which was attributed to the Yugoslavs. The damage inflicted by US and British bombing, meanwhile, was considerable."

Sound familiar? Oh, and by the way, George W. Bush was not the President of the U.S. in 1999. Just a reminder.

A rare case of "fair and balanced" news

Quote of the Day

George Bush said - "Bring 'em on." We say, "Bring them home now." - Nancy Lessin

Bush and Rumsfeld care for soldiers like Tyson Foods cares for chickens. - Stan Goff

MIA = Missing in America

The media and the blackout

Of course, the other blackout is on the word "capitalism." I'm speculating here, and maybe I'm way off base, but it sure seems likely that a system in which one power plant going off line can produce a blackout in six different states can only have been designed that way to maximize profits. Because it certainly doesn't seem like a rational design created to satisfy people's needs.

Followup: By the next morning, it seems definite that not only was it not a lightning strike that caused the blackout, Niagra Power says that the weather there was beautiful all day and there wasn't even a hint of lightning anywhere in the area. An interesting lesson in "rumorology" and media dynamics how such apparently definite information can be 100% wrong. Most newspapers are being more circumspect about terrorism than the broadcast media were last night, using language like "no evidence of terrorism." However, considering that as of this moment it isn't even known where the blackout started, it would seem more accurate simply to say that there is no information whatsoever about the cause of the blackout. I mean, if it turns out that a fire caused the blackout, which is another rumor, until you know how the fire started, how could you possibly know that it wasn't a terrorist who started it?

More followup: Investigative reporter Greg Palast has a great take on the situation, highlighted by its headline: "Power Outage Traced To Dim Bulb in White House." (Despite the headline, this is a serious article, not a joke).

News beneath the radar

One such story from yesterday - "Nearly 8,000 US physicians are calling for government-financed national health insurance". You will find this rather important story reported in some newspapers, but definitely not all (among the missing, from what one can tell from such sources as Google News - the New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many others). In other cases, as in the Washington Post, the story is found in the "Washington in Brief" section, buried. Likewise on TV, the story appears on some but not all of the networks and cable channels, and in all cases, is treated as a minor story, not receiving repeated play on the cable news stations. In short, if you blinked yesterday, or didn't happen to watch TV or read the paper very carefully yesterday, your chances of knowing about this development are nil. Your chances of knowing that Gary Coleman is running for Governor of California - 100%. Value of the "free press" in America - priceless. Or should that be "worthless"?

Quote of the Day

The right to free speech is not a license to violate U.S. or international law. The irony here is that their actions, under Saddam Hussein's Iraq, would be met with execution. The irony is thick.

Injuries matter

Here's a letter that appeared in the "Backtalk" section of Antiwar.com which poignantly illustrates the situation:

My son in law is in Ward 57 at Walter Reed. Lost his right leg to an RPG attack - the press is ignoring the number of injuries - especially amputees.

Except for the Washington Post article they want to forget it. When I asked at Walter Reed why in my son-in-law's attack near Kirkuk on July 9 did the Army Public Affairs officer say no one was seriously hurt - I was told it would not be good for the President. My son-in-law was then in very serious condition in a field hospital in Kirkuk flown shortly later to Germany in very serious condition. Yet the public announcement was "no one seriously injured."

Howard "Internet-savvy" Dean?

So this "internet-savvy" candidate is not only sending out spam, he does so by paying money to the kind of company whose business is sending out spam pitching viagra and similar nonsense. Brilliant!

The thought did occur to me that this could be a "black operation," with some right-winger attempting to smear Dean's reputation by sending out spam in his name, but all the evidence (like the link you can click on in the email which takes you straight to Dean's site to register as a supporter) suggests that this is 100% legitimate. And 100%, Grade A-1 spam.

Quote of the Day - Bremer

Freedom matters. I think it's important to ... look beyond the shootouts and blackouts and remind ourselves of a range of rights that Iraqis enjoy today because of the coalition's military victory.

The shorthand gets shorter

The media treats May 1 as if it represented the signing of an armistice or in some way the official end to a war. It was not. It was a speech, nothing more. It does not deserve the significance it is being given. Also in this morning's news (and receiving some TV time on my local news, anyway), military families are speaking out and demanding that the troops be brought home now. If I were part of a military family whose loved one had been killed prior to May 1, it seems to me I would be particularly incensed at the continued media trivialization of their death.

Good news on the California recall front!

I mean, have you seen "Batman and Robin"? I haven't seen any of Arnold's other films, but from that one, I can see how he's made his reputation playing robots. If we're going to have an actor for Governor, at least let's get one with some talent!

Iraq - the disinformation keeps coming

David Kay revealed his colors prior to the war with his scurrilous attacks on Scott Ritter, but it isn't necessary to apply such prior knowledge to analyze what he has to say now. A little rational thought is all that is needed. We are told by Kay and various unnamed officials that one or more of the following may true: Iraqi field commanders were convinced by US broadcasts not to use the weapons, or that in the chaos that ensued during the war, the weapons could not be delivered to front-line units, or that they were hastily hidden and have yet to be found, or finally they were destroyed by Iraqi officials or US air attacks.

All of these theories, however, founder on one simple problem - people. As I began writing back in May (pre-blog), whether weapons (or weapons programs) existed, or were hidden, or were destroyed, or (in this case) whether orders were received to use them, there were people involved - lots of people. And not just the "key scientists" and generals, but ordinary soldiers, technicians, truck drivers, etc. -- people who would have received the orders to deploy chemical weapons, been guarding the warehouse where they were stored, driven trucks out to the desert to hide or destroy them, received training in how to use them, etc. Now, given the financial (and asylum) incentives being offered for actual evidence of any of this, it is at all plausible that not a single person would have come forward with this evidence? Indeed, it is reported that some of the key people who have come forward, like Obeidi (he of the buried centrifuge parts) and Gen. Amer al-Saadi (senior Iraqi science advisor) have been squirreled away, kept from the prying eyes of the press precisely because they have said that there were no weapons; we wouldn't want them repeating that on CNN. No doubt pressure is being put on them and others like them to change their story (i.e., lie) in return for rewards or the promise of more lenient punishments. And, it is certainly arguable that people like that could be lying to avoid being prosecuted for war crimes. But the ordinary Iraqi soldiers who were in charge of guarding a warehouse where chemical weapons were stored would have no fear of punishment. So there can only be one explanation why none have come forward, and that is that no such people (and hence no such weapons) exist.

And if that isn't convincing enough for you, think about the "last-minute destruction" theory, which has been advanced by Kay, Rumsfeld before him, and others. Consider this article from today's San Francisco Chronicle. Dioxin, part of the chemical weapon Agent Orange which was deployed extensively by the US against Vietnam, is still detectable in Vietnam 30 years after its use. Is it credible that Iraq managed to destroy its chemical weapons (or that they were destroyed by US bombs) without leaving a trace behind? Hardly.

Followup:Slate is reporting from a story in Monday's Los Angeles Times, quotes from "several former Iraqi officers": "Commanders interviewed for this article said they were issued no orders regarding chemical or biological weapons. And they denied that Iraq ever possessed such weapons."

Capitalism kills...it's own soldiers

Followup: For a detailed look at privatization and the military, see this article.

Democracy - it can't be rushed

Middle ground?

The search is on...for "rebuilding capacity"

Senator Dick Lugar was unrepentent on the same show. Asked if there was an "urgency to go to war," he replied: "We believe that Saddam Hussein...he had really the intent to be aggressive and to try to find weapons of mass destruction. That was sufficient reason in my mind to give the president the authority to go to war." The intent to try to find weapons of mass destruction? It doesn't take much to give this guy a sufficient reason to go to war, does it?

Note, of course, the implicit coverup of history. Bush & Co. did not ask for authority to go to war because Iraq was "trying to find weapons of mass destruction," they asked for the authority because they claimed that Iraq had such weapons, massive stockpiles of them. Lugar, of course, conveniently wants us to forget that.

Just 16 words? Hardly.

The new information indicates a pattern in which President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their subordinates -- in public and behind the scenes -- made allegations depicting Iraq's nuclear weapons program as more active, more certain and more imminent in its threat than the data they had would support. On occasion administration advocates withheld evidence that did not conform to their views. The White House seldom corrected misstatements or acknowledged loss of confidence in information upon which it had previously relied.

The other side of US casualties

The abd al-Kerim family didn't have a chance. American soldiers opened fire on their car with no warning and at close quarters. They killed the father and three of the children, one of them only eight years old. Now only the mother, Anwar, and a 13-year-old daughter are alive to tell how the bullets tore through the windscreen and how they screamed for the Americans to stop.

In Washington yesterday, Mr Bush declared in a radio address: "Life is returning to normal for the Iraqi people ... All Americans can be proud of what our military and provisional authorities have achieved in Iraq.

More on body counts in Iraq

The author does make one statement with which Left I has to strongly disagree:

If you support the troops then this must mean bringing them home--alive. If one supports the troops--and most are decent well-meaning folks--then the best thing one can do is to clamor for a substitution of US troops by UN troops with a wide mandate.

Quote of the Day - Alexander Cockburn

Grey Davis...proclaims that he is going to fight "like a Bengal tiger". It takes one to know one. Bengal tigers like to hang out near some village and eat small cows, fearing even the stately water buffalo. When its teeth go bad the Bengal tiger gives up on the cows and starts attacking elderly, defenseless humans.

This from a very good article on the subject of the "lesser of two evils," the Democrats, Peter Camejo and the Greens, and the California recall election.

Links, Ties, and Media Lies

In some cases, of course, this happens because people that Americans trust, like their President, tell them lies, like claiming that Iraq didn't let weapons inspectors in or claiming that biological weapons had been found when in fact what had been found were some empty trailers once used to make hydrogen.

In other cases, though, the media is very directly to blame, such as this case study from today's San Jose Mercury News, which carries this story:

Thursday's car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, which killed 19 people and wounded more than 60, could be the work of Ansar al Islam, a Taliban-style extremist group with alleged ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network, officials with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said Friday.

Now here's an even more interesting observation. Just like a few days ago (scroll down to the story "Is there a method in the (media) madness"), the online story is different than the print version in very interesting ways. First, the headline of the online story is much simpler, and accurate: "Officials suspect Islamic group in Iraq bombing." Both the key problems with the headline are solved - the origin of the claim is clearly identified as "officials," rather than the passive voice of the print edition which implies editorial endorsement, and the Islamic group is now merely "suspected," and not "tied" and "linked" to the bombing. Curiously, however, Ansar al Islam is described in the body of the online article as "a Taliban-style extremist group with ties to the al-Qaida" rather than "alleged" ties as in the print edition.

I'm not sure what kind of struggle is going on over at Knight Ridder between their online editor and their print editor, but it certainly makes it clear once again that little details like this are the result of conscious decisions on the part of editors and are certainly not accidents or random occurances.

The News in a Parallel Universe

On Polls

However, even if the questions are fair, and the poll sample representative, polls can still be biased just in the way they're written up. Consider these two lines from the Newsweek article:

"Almost half of Americans-49 percent-would like to see him reelected." What would be the effect on the reader if the sentence read "More than half of Americans-51 percent-do not want to see him reelected"?

Or this sentence: "Forty-six percent say they would support a withdrawal of U.S. troops in response to the attacks; 40 percent would support increasing the number of troops in Iraq. How about if we re-write that sentence like this: "Nearly half of all Americans now support a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, while a smaller number believes we should increase troop levels"?

In the words of the bumper sticker: "Question authority"

Quote of the Day

Apologies are not something that we have as a normal procedure in the military processes.

Rene Gonzalez defends Cuba

Two selected paragraphs from Gonzalez's letter:

I can't imagine that somebody can consider himself a progressive person and then take at its word the endemic slandering and lies of the U.S. media in regards to Cuba. It would only take a little bit of intellectual honesty and some research to discover that the money to pay "dissidents" is appropriated, overtly and openly, by the U.S. authorities to be distributed through entities like NED and USAID among whomever, on the island, decides to make a living as a dissident.
...
Those mercenaries [the 75 "dissidents"] were dealt with through the legal system. They weren't arbitrarily declared "enemy" or "illegal" combatants, or disposed of through a drone-launched rocket so that Fidel could pose to the cameras declaring them "no longer a problem," or subjected to secret military tribunals, nor were their families' homes demolished by the Cuban military.

28,000 Iraqi civilian casualties

Saddam on the run?

It's official! The world began on May 1!

A good source for the real information is here. The totals as of today show 301 US and UK troops dead in Iraq, nearly six times more than the 55 which is being drummed into the readers/viewers consciousness. Gee, could this be intentional? Ya' think?

Followup: It's amazing how even most progressive "blogs" use this May 1 date as the date from which one should start counting deaths, as if the ones that preceded that aren't relevant. Evidence of the power of the media to influence even people who should know better.

Political Joke of the Day

Lawyers, huh? Wow, he must be serious about this. He didn't even use lawyers to check if going to war was legal.

Fool me twice?

• The truth behind this claim is tenuous indeed, as documented by John Laughland in the Mail (UK). Time after time, as in Kosovo, claims of genocide or hundreds of thousands killed have turned out to be wildly exxagerated. That doesn't mean they aren't necessarily true in this case. It does mean that one should not believe claims like these without serious proof. Remember that many of the allegations come from Iraqi defectors and ex-patriots like Ahmad Chalabi, and you know how (in)accurate their information about WMD turned out to be. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.


• What is well documented, but you'll be hard-pressed indeed to find it mentioned in the media, is the fact that somewhere between 500,000 and one million Iraqis, the majority of them children, died as a direct result of the UN sanctions. In other words the "cure" was worse than the "disease" even if the 300,000 figure turns out to be true (which appears doubtful). Saddam wasn't the worst killer of Iraqis. The US and UN were.


• Also "missing in action" in the media is any mention of the thousands of innocent civilians killed by US bombs and bullets in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia (just to name the three most recent countries). After all, those were all "accidents," not even worth counting. Except, of course, for the ones that were quite deliberate, like the 14 totally innocent Iraqis who were deliberately killed when the US dropped bombs on a restaurant trying to kill Saddam Hussein.