How reporting the war has changed

[sirs]

[Michael Tee]

Funny, I thought the change was gonna be shown from what media coverage was in the uncritical pre-invasion phase, when Judith Miller swallowed the entire Pentagon line about the "grave and immediate danger" [quotes indicating bogus nature of claim made, not actual words spoken] and the NYT printed it all as gospel, or when the triumphant TV coverage of a giant crowd (which afterwards turned out to have been a very tightly-framed tiny group) pulling down Saddam's statue, to today's much closer approximation of the truth.

But instead I found the comparison between the late 18th Century, with Paul Revere's midnight ride standing in for the media of the time, and October, 2006.  According to the examples chosen by the cartoonist, not much change at all:  then and now, they reported the truth.

[sirs]

According to the examples chosen by the cartoonist, not much change at all:  then and now, they reported the truth.

Not quite.  More like 1 reporting the truth while the other reporting whatever version of the perceived truth hurts Bush/GOP the most

[Michael Tee]

<< . . . whatever version of the perceived truth hurts Bush/GOP the most>>

ANY truth hurts Bush the most.  That's why he lives in a fantasy world of lies and bullshit.

[sirs]

<< . . . whatever version of the perceived truth hurts Bush/GOP the most>>

ANY truth hurts Bush the most.  That's why he lives in a fantasy world of lies and bullshit.

Oh, you mean record tax generating Fed revenues?  Record Stock Market?  Unemployment #'s still 4.6-4.7%?  Record Housing ownership?  No Terrosist attacks in this country since 911?  Etc., etc., etc., etc.  Yea, those truths sure do hurt Bush, don't they.  Speaking of living in a fantasy world, how's your pre-ordained weather?

[Michael Tee]

<<Oh, you mean record tax generating Fed revenues? >>

Nobody told you, huh?  They drowned in the record half-trill deficit.

<< Record Stock Market? >>

That's for the coupon-clippers and dividend collectors that your "President" serves.  For the other 90% of the country, jobless and watching their savings dwindle away, or trying to make ends meet on the proceeds of part-time burger flipping (see next paragraph,) they can connect the dots: good jobs outsourced to third-world wage slaves = higher corporate profits = record share prices.  It's good for somebody, but they know who.

<<Unemployment #'s still 4.6-4.7%?  >>

Sure, low-paying service industry jobs keep down the unemployment figure while high-paying manufacturing and high-tech jobs go to Mexico and India.  Americans working harder and longer to earn less and less.  Don't worry, enough of them will know who to thank for this.

<<Record Housing ownership?  >>

Sorta goes hand in hand with record population, doesn't it?  Like, can you say "porous borders?"

<<No Terrosist attacks in this country since 911? >>

No, why bother to come all the way to America when you can kill all the fucking infidels you want to in your own back yard and earn a master's degree in transferable combat skills at the same time?  But don't worry, sirs, your friends haven't forgotten all about you either.  There's a whole new generation of them out there, recruited in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq thanks to your "President's" insane policies of provocation, who are planning the Next Big One on their own timetable, not Bush's or yours. Oh and BTW - - could you remind me again on whose watch 911 happened?  REALLY? 

<<Etc., etc., etc., etc.  >>

It's the "etc., etc., etc." that bothers people the most.   Losing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, third-rate piss-ant countries telling the mighty U.S.A. to go fuck itself and flipping it the bird because its military is stretched to the breaking point by an illegal war in Iraq, pissed-off allies insulted by years of Bush "diplomacy," abrogation of basic Constitutional rights, erosion of the church-state barrier (Terry Schiavo, stem cell research, Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage,) blatant lying to the public (WMD, "Mission Accomplished," "just a few dead-enders,") torture, rape and murder of prisoners of war,  open contempt for the "quaint and old-fashioned" Geneva Conventions, racism, scandal, Kenny Boy, Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Foley . . . well, you know, sirs, "etc. etc. etc." as they say.

<< Yea, those truths sure do hurt Bush, don't they. >>

Well, you said it, sirs.  And I couldn't have put it better myself.

<<Speaking of living in a fantasy world, how's your pre-ordained weather?>>

Excuse me, WHO'S living in a fantasy world?

[sirs]

Excuse me, WHO'S living in a fantasy world?

That's why I was asking.  Just curious how you painted your world's weather.  Perfectly blue skies?  Windmills as far as you can see?  Everyone riding a bike to work? 

And it's always nice to watch how the rabid left completely ignores all the good that has occured in this country.  I mean to do so, might require some acknowledgement that it happened under Bush  Oooooooooooo, can't be having that now.  He's pure evil, he needs to be portrayed as such.  So any and everything bad that happens must be due to his doing and/his policies alone.  Anything good that happens is pure coincidence, but more likely residual effects of the greatest president this country ever had, Bill Clinton.  That about right?

[_JS]

Interesting historical analogy.

In fact, Paul Revere was well-known for his rendition of the "Boston Massacre," which was in fact an outright piece of propaganda (or more commonly known as a libel). He depicted the "massacre" as an inflamed British military operating in a firing line and shooting down a group of peaceful Bostonian demonstrators in his engraving. Of course, that isn't exactly how events took place that night.

Have you ever thought that the war isn't going very well?

Look at the idiocy of what is being proposed. Benchmarks for an Iraqi government? They are supposed to disarm the militias in 12 to 18 months. How? We haven't been able to do it. How are the Iraqis going to do it. What happens if they don't meet the benchmarks? Are we going to punish them in some way?

Benchmarks suddenly make this war winnable? It was a management problem all along? Stupidity. I'll add incompetence as well.

[Amianthus]

Benchmarks for an Iraqi government?

Isn't a drop dead date for troop pullout - as recommended by the Democrats - nothing more than a benchmark?

[_JS]

Isn't a drop dead date for troop pullout - as recommended by the Democrats - nothing more than a benchmark?

No.

[sirs]

Have you ever thought that the war isn't going very well?

Yes,.......and?  Rarely do wars ever "go well"

[_JS]

Yes,.......and?  Rarely do wars ever "go well"

And the sectarian violence is not showing any signs of weakening. In fact, we aren't showing any signs of establishing any sort of control over Baghdad, let alone much of Iraq.

[sirs]

Yes,.......and?  Rarely do wars ever "go well"

And the sectarian violence is not showing any signs of weakening. In fact, we aren't showing any signs of establishing any sort of control over Baghdad, let alone much of Iraq.

That's one opinion.  Another is that there have been cycles of improved control & countering insurgent attacks, along with signs of ever increasing Iraqi autonomy, with cycles of poor control and increased fatalities at the hands of insurgents.  More of the former than the latter, but currently we're in a down cycle

[Plane]

<<Oh, you mean record tax generating Fed revenues? >>

Nobody told you, huh?  They drowned in the record half-trill deficit.

Do you think of this as a fact or an opinioin?


What was the Debt as a proportion of the GNP ten years ago , and what is the percentage now?

[Michael Tee]

<<That's why I was asking.  Just curious how you painted your world's weather.  Perfectly blue skies?  Windmills as far as you can see?  Everyone riding a bike to work? >>

Does this meaningless babble have a point?  Do you really think that this kind of ad hominem argument advances your case in any way at all?

<<And it's always nice to watch how the rabid left completely ignores all the good that has occured in this country.  I mean to do so, might require some acknowledgement that it happened under Bush  >>

The point that was being made, that you need to respond to in a more serious way than merely denouncing it as the view of the "rabid left," was that there hadn't been any genuinely good news from your country, under Bush, just "window dressing" and spin.  And that's because he really is a bad President.  Probably the worst you've ever had.  Which I proved in a point-by-point rebuttal of ALL of your "good news."  

You see, sirs, I answered your pathetic drivel of bullshit with facts and logic.  Plain old common sense.  To which you have NO answer - - apart from saying it's "rabid left" and comes from a "fantasy world."  You'll really have to do better than that to convince anyone.

<<  Oooooooooo, can't be having that now.  He's pure evil, he needs to be portrayed as such. >>

Why?  Why, if he weren't such an incompetent, lying ass-hole and war-monger, would I have to portray him as such?  Why on earth would I pick on some unoffending soul, doing his level best to keep the country on an even keel and more or less succeeding at it, as "pure evil?"

["Pure evil," I need hardly point out, are words that you keep trying to put in my mouth, nothing I've ever said, except maybe in jest, just your childish attempt to exaggerate valid criticisms of an amoral, blundering and incompetent "President" to the point where the critic would appear to be extravagant, simplistic and unbalanced.  Worthy of the old Pravda and fooling absolutely nobody but yourself, sirs.]

<<So any and everything bad that happens must be due to his doing and/his policies alone.  Anything good that happens is pure coincidence, but more likely residual effects of the greatest president this country ever had, Bill Clinton.  That about right?>>

No of course it's not about right and I never said anything remotely resembling it.  Although it is true that virtually nothing good has come of this criminal moron's efforts and a lot of good was accomplished by Clinton.  You have to accept the fact that there are good and bad Presidents.  Bush just happens to be a bad one, one of the worst.  Deal with it.