Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
The version of California’s AB1934 which the California Senate passed last night was amended and had to go back to the state Assembly, which had passed the original version some time back. But the amended version of the bill failed.
Some news organizations reported that the bill was now on the way to the governor, either because they were unaware that it had to be re-passed by the Assembly or because they assumed it would be re-passed by the Assembly based on its earlier passage.
I’ll admit that I had seen it had to go back to the Assembly but assumed it had passed because the report I was reading stated it was on the way to the governor. Murdoc should have known better than to trust anything he read.
So the ban on open carrying of unloaded guns in California is apparently dead. This is a near-term victory for gun rights and, given the state of things in Cali, probably a very good thing.
UPDATE: Apparently they just ran out of time.
Just a reminder:
Barack Obama, January 2007:
“We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war,” Obama said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “And until we acknowledge that reality, we can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops. I don’t know any expert on the region or any military officer that I’ve spoken to privately that believe that that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.”
Barack Obama, July 2007:
“Here’s what we know: the surge has not worked.”
Let’s see if “the Surge” gets much airtime tonight in President Obama’s speech about the “end of the war in Iraq.” And we’ll see if the media is there to push for answers about why not.
From The Examiner via Instapundit.
Instapundit points out Mainstream media ‘fractured’ in covering Katrina.
While many of us now realize how over-the-top some of the stories were, and some realized it at the time, it’s also important to realize that at least some of the blame for exaggerated stories lies squarely on the shoulder of Mayor Ray Nagin and New Orleans police commissioner Eddie Compass:
Mayor Ray Nagin said in a memorable appearance September 6, 2005, on Oprah Winfrey’s television show that “hundreds of armed gang members” were terrorizing storm-evacuees inside the Superdome.
The mayor also said conditions there had deteriorated to “an almost animalistic state” and evacuees had been “in that frickin’ Superdome for five days, watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.”
The police commissioner, Eddie Compass, spoke of other horrors, saying “little babies [were] getting raped” inside the Superdome.
These are the same guys who decided that the best course of action was to disarm law-abiding citizens.
A personal friend posted this on her Facebook wall (via Barack Obama, no less):
U.S. Troops in Iraq Fall Below 50,000
www.cnn.com
The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has fallen below 50,000—the lowest level since the U.S-led invasion in 2003.
But all the news ain’t good, which is par for the course in so many of the dusty sandboxes of the world. So I responded with
Bombings come one day after U.S. troop level in Iraq dips below 50,000
BAGHDAD — Bombers and gunmen launched an apparently coordinated string of at least a dozen attacks against Iraqi government forces on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people just one day after the number of U.S. troops fell below 50,000 for the first time since the start of the war.
Obviously, a rise in violence is to be expected. First, the Iraqi security forces are simply not as good as the US troops. Period. Even if political corruption and tribal issues didn’t hamper things too much of the time, the skill level and the tools for the job just aren’t equal to what the US military brings to the fight.
Secondly, despite nearly eight years of negative reports about the US military results in Iraq, Americans have been mind-bogglingly, stunningly, successful. They’ve exceeded expectations, and expectations were sky high to begin with. The surviving insurgents and terrorists had a lot of justification to lie a bit lower and wait for “the last US combat brigade to leave Iraq.” Now that the press has played this up, they probably sense that the time is right to come out of their rat holes for a bit, shake things up, and see what happens.
Hopefully, what happens is that the Iraqi forces, with American advisors and assisters backing them up, drives them back into their holes. Well, the ones they don’t kill, anyway.
This is yet another crucial phase in the campaign.
Via Instapundit: The New York Times on the recent decision by the Department of Justice not to charge Tom DeLay:
That is an astute observation: The only reason he didn’t break the law is that what he did wasn’t illegal.
From the lead paragraph of the editorial:
The decision is a reminder that some of Washington’s worst big-money practices remain either legal or far too difficult to prosecute.
No mention that these practices are common on both sides of the aisle. Which means that the current majority of worst big-money practitioners are not members of the GOP.
That may be changing soon, though. If so, maybe the big-money practices of the majority party will be fair game once again.
(Not that I’m defending DeLay. As far as I’m concerned, he was so corrupt and ineffective he might as well have been a Democrat.)
Repeal a tax cut no one can afford
Murdoc loves how tax cuts are always portrayed as somehow costing the government money. Like if Murdoc doesn’t eat a double cheeseburger, he’s somehow cost McDonalds a dollar.
That’s how tax cuts are, except that when tax cuts are repealed and you have to pay for a double cheeseburger, you don’t get to eat it.
Repeal the tax cut because Americans “can’t afford” to keep so much of their money.
Mullen says U.S. has Iran strike plan if needed
I’m surprised this hasn’t been plastered all over the news. Seems like whenever someone says something like this it turns into a “See? The US is trying to conquer the world!” story.
Plans to strike Iran? Heck, we’ve probably got plans to strike Trinidad And Tobago.
Meanwhile, I like this bit:
And he says that, should it come to that, the military has a plan at hand. He didn’t elaborate.
What? He didn’t elaborate? What were they expecting?
Ted Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We’re bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We’re coming in from the north, below their radar.
Elaine Dickinson: When will you be back?
Ted Striker: I can’t tell you that. It’s classified.
Sniper sues Army over error which put him in danger of being kidnapped by al-Qaeda
Great Britain:
Police feared the soldier and his family could face retaliatory attacks by British-based Islamists after it was disclosed to the media that he had shot dead several Taliban gunmen at a range of 1.5 miles during during a tour in Helmand.
The soldier and his family were forced to leave the country amid fears that he was a possible target of a kidnap plot.
He has now lodged a “letter of claim” with the MoD, accusing it of failing in its duty of care to the soldier by allowing his identity to become public.
Some might wonder if the soldier is overreacting, but
In January 2007, a plot by a Birmingham-based al-Qaeda cell to kidnap a British soldier and behead him was discovered.
The six-man cell was led by Paviz Khan, a 37-year-old father of three, who planned to kidnap a Muslim soldier and post a film of him being beheaded on the internet in a bid to deter other members of the faith from joining the British Army.
The plan was thwarted by a year-long surveillance operation by MI5 and members of the West Midlands counter-terrorist unit. Khan was later jailed for life.
‘Absolutely nothing that leads us to believe that this tale could be even remotely based in reality’
Taliban Monkey Terrorist
Are Taliban Training Monkeys to Kill U.S Troops?
The Chinese People’s Daily reported this week that “monkey terrorists” are being trained by the Taliban in Waziristan, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The newspaper also claimed that reporters from an unnamed British news agency took photographs of the “monkey soldiers” holding AK-47s and other weapons.The primates are supposedly meant to counter U.S. military technological advantages in Afghanistan.
“In response, the Taliban forces have tried any possible means and figured out a method to train monkeys as ‘replacement killers’ against American troops,” according to the newspaper.
