Sen. Clinton Defends Iraq War Vote

She's getting slammed, but IMHO this is a very smart and absolutely "right" move. Finish It. Clinton is offering criticism that isn't positioned as a partisan hack-job, it's thoughtful and not mean or vicious. She is showing leadership though many on the Left have disowned/disavowed her.

And the Right, well, they'll NEVER trust her, but for those undecided, in the middle and just-don't-care folks, this position may move them closer to her. We're still a few years out, but she's laying the groundwork now. Smart.

Update: 12/3/05 Iraq War Protestors Protest Clinton
Senator Clinton was interrupted several times during a speech at Roosevelt University.

A group in the balcony chanted and held signs that together read "Out of Iraq", while another group started chanting, "Troops Out Now."

Flyers were also thrown down from the balcony, accusing Democrats and Republicans of being alike when it comes to Iraq policy...and condemning Senator Clinton for voting for Iraq invasion in 2002.

The Sky is Falling...or is it just the price of gasoline?

A little more than a month ago the sky was falling...and it wasn't the opening of the Chicken Little film. The media was on to a big story: "Gasoline prices skyrocketing, prices at the pump over $3 a gallon, record barrel prices ($70), pricing gouging, no end in sight to rising, rising, rising gas prices. Prices on other goods and services will increase. Americans will suffering. Americans ARE suffering."

I know, it WAS painful paying $3 or more for a gallon of regular unleaded. But the media was hitting it hard, so hard I'm surprised there weren't reports of people jumping out of skyscrapers because it was so bad, you know, with the "sky falling and world ending" and all...

And now, not with a bang but a whimper, the price of gas has gone down--by as much as $.50 a gallon/ $57 a barrel. The media talks the talk of balance & fairness but there's no balance, no fairness, we're left thinking the sky is still falling (and it may very well be, have you seen the sky lately?) because that's what we were programmed to believe (thought has no place in the religion that is media).

The media promoted the crisis (they need ratings too because ratings = $$$), but have done little to inform us that gas prices have fallen.

I learned gas prices had dropped when I went to the pump and later that same day, it was mentioned on the ticker that speeds along the bottom of the more important broadcasted news --hurry, you might miss it. I guess the media is on to the next story...what will it be this time-- a return to...Arabian Nights?

Russia Hid Saddam's WMDs

By Ion Mihai Pacepa
Washington Times | October 2, 2003

On March 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the U.S.-led "aggression" against Iraq as "unwarranted" and "unjustifiable." Three days later, Pravda said that an anonymous Russian "military expert" was predicting that the United States would fabricate finding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov immediately started plying the idea abroad, and it has taken hold around the world ever since.

As a former Romanian spy chief who used to take orders from the Soviet KGB, it is perfectly obvious to me that Russia is behind the evanescence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. After all, Russia helped Saddam get his hands on them in the first place. The Soviet Union and all its bloc states always had a standard operating procedure for deep sixing weapons of mass destruction — in Romanian it was codenamed "Sarindar, meaning "emergency exit." I implemented it in Libya. It was for ridding Third World despots of all trace of their chemical weapons if the Western imperialists ever got near them. We wanted to make sure they would never be traced back to us, and we also wanted to frustrate the West by not giving them anything they could make propaganda with.

[Excerpt]

The Media IS a Plane Crash

The media uses this common excuse for not reporting good news in Iraq: If it bleeds it leads.

But it's ironic that there is a plethora of entertainment "news" shows such as the Insider, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and so on and they manage to package "news" and get viewers. If bad news attracks viewers, then why don't the entertainment mags only report bad news? They don't. While they do report breakups and deaths ad nauseam, they also report the most superficial and mundane aspects of entertainers' and their lives.

Are reporters after the truth or after Nielson numbers? If "it bleeds it leads" means exactly what? That there's more truth in blood, in conflict, in disaster?

It is the laziness of reporters that is at play here and they use this excuse as a cover for their ineptitude and bias against the war and this administration. And so, reporters use their other favorite excuse: It's not news if a plane lands at Kennedy airport safely — only if it crashes.

... or if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are on board.

The China Connection

On a recent CNN show, the "reporter" claimed that 90%+ of Wal-Mart products come from China. This is presented as a bad thing for America, though the reporter never comes right and states this, it is implied.

What's interesting is that Wal-Mart does not manufacture these products, U.S. companies do. Wal-Mart is merely the middleman --the aggregate--between the consumer and the manufacturer. Wal-Mart merely sells the products these manufacturers produce. Why not go after the companies manufacturing in China?

Wal-Mart is being villainized because the unions want a piece of the Wal-Mart money pie. The unions don't care about the consumer and they really don't care about workers. Wal-Mart pays taxes, Wal-Mart employees pay taxes. Wal-Mart offers good pricing for consumers that allow consumers to have access to more and better products. Which in turn allows consumers more money to spend elsewhere. Wal-Mart contributes to the circle of economic life, it's not clear how unions do.