So, here we are in Iraq. The longest military engagement in the history of the US. All because GWB wants to save face to a bunch of savages living in the stone ages. Three tribes are constantly in turmoil over who loves God the right way. I thought we were going to be shocked, and stand in awe. Apparently not. I have no doubt Iraq had WMD. The reason why we didn't find any is because GWB had to play the pander game with the stupid dems. Let's not forget the year plus of hand wringing going on between the US and the obsolete UN that gave them PLENTY of time to ship WMD out of Iraq, and into any neighboring terrorists harboring country.

NBC proved to be a media anomaly on July 17, leading its “Nightly News” broadcast with the record-high close on Wall Street and admitting that the stock market does benefit “a majority of Americans.” This historic bull run by the stock market was virtually ignored by other media. Katie Couric briefly mentioned it on the CBS “Evening News,” and ABC “World News” ignored it on July 17.

The CBS Evening News led Wednesday night by framing the failed Senate vote, on setting a timetable to start withdrawing troops from Iraq within 120 days, as evidence of how out of step the Senators are with the American public, while just as Katie Couric did in February, CBS ignored how a piddling 8 percent favor the left-wing activist position of blocking all funding. Citing the measure which earned 52 votes, eight short of the necessary 60 to move the bill forward, Couric related that even after “a rare, all-night debate” Democrats “couldn't come up with the votes today to bring the latest troop withdrawal measure to the floor. And that is in spite of pressure from the voters themselves. In a CBS News/New York Times poll out tonight, nearly three out of four Americans say the troop surge is not working, that it's having no impact, or actually making matters worse.” Reporter Sharyl Attkisson also saw the vote through the prism of public opinion, noting the result came “despite the latest CBS News poll showing 61 percent of Americans want the war funded with a timetable for withdrawal.”

As Couric pointed out how “nearly three out of four Americans say the troop surge is not working, that it's having no impact, or actually making matters worse,” the on-screen graphic showed “No Impact or Worse” at 73 percent. But “not working” was not an option in the survey and only 22 percent said the surge is making the situation “worse.” The majority, 51 percent, answered “no impact.”

As the potential Dow Jones sale to Rupert Murdoch gets closer, the mogul was under fire from ABC on July 18. Correspondent Bianna Golodryga cited fears that the Wall Street Journal would begin to resemble the New York Post, already owned by Murdoch.

“Here is why this story is important. This is the paper he wants to buy: The Wall Street Journal. Now, one big news story, a business story that came out a few weeks ago, was the sale of Hilton Hotels.

Michael Moore claimed in his movie “SiCKO” that there are 50 million uninsured Americans, according to his own Web site. But he’s wrong.

He’s certainly not alone though. So were President Bush, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as well as The Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, CBS and ABC just to name a few.

“It’s really indefensible that we now have more than 45 million uninsured Americans, 9 million of whom are children, and the vast majority of whom are from working families,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton in a May 31 speech.

ABC medical expert Dr. Tim Johnson cited the incorrect data as he praised a "bold" and "politically brilliant" universal coverage plan on the April 26 “Good Morning America.”

In this day and age of Political Correctness it can almost be expected that someone will object to the portrayal of Apu in the upcoming "The Simpsons" movie as racist. Sure enough, writer Manish Vij, made just that accusation in the July 17 issue of the British newspaper The Guardian with an article titled, The Apu travesty:

...The Simpsons has long irritated some Indian-Americans because of the thickly stereotypical character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the effete cornershop owner with fractured English, excess fertility, bizarre religious practices, illegal immigration status and a penchant for cheating customers.

Apu is quite a unique character on The Simpsons. Unlike the show's parodies of policemen and Irish-Americans, he's the only character to mock a small American minority relatively unknown in the mainstream, and he's by far the most visible immigrant. For desis (South Asians) growing up in America, just one eighth as concentrated and visible as in the UK, Apu shadowed us at every turn.

Another little change to NB's comment section has been the addition of *New to new comments. This makes it so that after you've clicked the "X new comments" link, you can easily skip to the next one simply by searching for "*new."

This tip works better in Firefox, Safari, and Opera than it does in IE since you can easily repeat a search by pushing F3 (Windows, Linux), Control G (Windows, Linux) or Command G (Mac).

The "BeliefWatch" column in the front section of Newsweek magazine is often better described as a "Non-BeliefWatch," offering the latest supportive coverage of atheists, humanists, Unitarians, free-thinking leftist dissidents, and "blasphemy challengers." In this week’s "BeliefWatch," Newsweek's Lisa Miller highlights leftist Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, running down Utah as deluded and denouncing Mitt Romney as a sellout to right-wing handlers.

"There is a culture of obedience in this country, but it's probably no more evident than in most parts of Utah," Anderson told NEWSWEEK in an interview. "That's why we've seen the highest approval ratings here for this entirely corrupt, disastrous presidency." As for Romney, his "opposition to abortion and stem-cell research is a very different Mitt Romney than the one who ran for governor of Massachusetts. I felt that Mitt Romney was a man who could really bring people together in a nonpartisan fashion, who would always stand up for the highest ideals and not worry about the polls ... I can only think this is a man who's caving to what his handlers want him to say."

Just a quick note: The NB forums are fixed now. Anyone who is registered can now start a discussion. Per Mean Gene Dr. Love's suggestion, we also have added an additional forum, "The Woodshed" where you can move a heated debate instead of getting a comment thread on an article off-track.

Still working on the profile pics and private messages.

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If you're Keith Olbermann (file photo at right), these two contradictory notions are equally true.

The terrorist threat against America amounts to a bunch of hopeless nincompoops who are nothing more than armchair wannabe jihadists.

AND

George Bush is a massive failure at protecting this country from terrorist attacks.

Just take a look at items from his "The News Hole" blog from the past few months (emphasis mine).

From July 17's "Blogging the Countdown" entry:

The co-hosts on "The View" discussed the issue of health care on the July 18 edition. Barbara Walters, who previously endorsed Michael Moore’s "Sicko", did so again. To bolster her argument that health care is an important issue, Walters stated "this is why Michael Moore has a film called ‘Sicko.’"

Co-host Joy Behar continued on her many anti-Bush rants, this time about a health insurance initiative. Behar’s main source was noted left-wing partisan Paul Krugman.

JOY BEHAR: You know, they call themselves compassionate conservatives, right? Bush has just vetoed a bipartisan bill that would extend health coverage for 4.1 million children in this country. Now, that is not a compassionate conservative.

A new poll released Wednesday gave extraordinary evidence as to how continued negative reports from a bearish media have impacted the public’s view of the economy.

As reported by Reuters (emphasis added):

Two-thirds of those surveyed, 66 percent, said the direction of economic policy was fair or poor.

Yet, these same folks are very optimistic about their own economic condition:

Those who oppose the Iraq war are always adamant that they support the troops, but how do you characterize people who think it's good television programming to portray Iraq war veterans as violent criminals? This Sunday at 9pm EDT/PDT, the Spike TV cable channel, part of the CBS/Viacom empire, starts The Kill Point, a four-part, eight-hour mini-series “event” revolving around a group of Iraq war veterans who rob a bank and take hostages. John Leguizamo (IMDb bio page), “Dr. Victor Clemente” on NBC's ER, stars as the leader of the heavily-armed robbers and the Spike Web site for the show describes his character as a man who is “fighting his own personal demons from the Iraq war.” Spike TV, best known for incessant re-runs of CSI, will air The Kill Point in two-hour blocks over four successive Sundays, starting this Sunday, July 22.

On Wednesday’s "Good Morning America," the ABC program actually reported on Elizabeth Edwards’s attack that ‘08 contender Hillary Clinton may not be a strong advocate for women. However, correspondent Claire Shipman managed the feat of somehow turning the story into a positive for both women. She also engaged in the standard media practice of identification bias.

Shipman gushed that the spouse of former Senator John Edwards is "popular" and then later referred to her as "very popular." Before playing a clip of Hillary Clinton sounding tough on terrorism, the ABC reporter asserted, "...There is striking gender role reversal on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton by far the toughest politically and stylistically."

Cuba's president-for-life Fidel Castro is a huge sports fan. Betcha didn't know that! But thanks to Reuters, we know that Castro has been unable to tear himself away from the television set, watching the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro:

Fidel Castro has become so glued to the television set watching the Pan-American Games unfolding in Brazil that he is forgetting to take his pills.

In a column published on Wednesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma, the convalescing Cuban leader said he was so engrossed with the sports that he was even forgetting to eat.

"I don't miss a single event on television: weights, taekwondo, rowing, cycling, beach volleyball," he wrote.

In yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times article, "Could Obama end centuries of corruption?," staff reporter Jennifer Hunter questions if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, "a champion of improving government ethics at both the federal and state level," can clean up the government. Ms Hunter finds the senator's "ethic proposals are praiseworthy" and lauds his efforts.

No mention is made in her article of Obama's intimate connection to someone who may not be quite so interested in ethics, indicted businessman Tony Rezko. Even after it was known that Rezko was the target of a Federal investigation, Obama asked the wheeler-dealer to get involved in the purchase of Obama's home.

If you had any questions about the political leanings of the Associated Press, they were answered Tuesday when the wire service finally noticed nine days after the fact that a Democrat Congressman had made some despicable comments about President Bush, Adolf Hitler, and 9/11.

Of course, the AP getting around to this issue when the Congressman apologized for his deplorable remarks is icing on the cake.

As NewsBusters reported Monday, Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), speaking in front of an atheists’ meeting in his home state, said (emphasis added):

The Hill newspaper can be a good read for Capitol Hill coverage. It goes deeper than the superficial treatment the MSM often gives legislative matters.

That said, it seems to me the paper is taking at best a curious tack on an issue dividing fiscal conservatives of late: whether to sew up a federal tax loophole on private equity compensation and effectively raise some taxes as a result.

The Hill is painting the matter as one of conservative activists versus their GOP congressional allies with Jessica Holzer's July 18 article, "Conservatives break with GOP leaders on tax bill." The lede for the article lends the impression that some conservatives are finding a tax they actually like:

Apparently, the grandstanding by Edward R. Murrow-wannabe Keith Olbermann during his performance as co-moderator of the May Republican debate won the support of the AFL-CIO. On its blog, the union announced the big news that Olbermann will also moderate the August 7 Democratic debate, which the powerful union is sponsoring.

It looks like the man who once stated that “the leading terrorist group in this country right now is the Republican Party,” will have the responsibility of questioning the Democratic candidates' positions and challenging their statements.

July 17, the AFL-CIO Now blog promoted Olbermann's new moderator gig, and since the site didn't mention Matthews' name or anyone else's, it looks as if Olbermann will fly solo (via Inside Cable News, emphasis mine throughout):

So how's that conversion thing working out for you? Anything else on your mind?

Here's yet another addition to the annals of the "do as I say crowd." The rehearsal dinner for Al Gore's youngest daughter's wedding last week featured, among other items, Chilean sea bass for 75. Sounds yummy!

Unfortunately, Chilean sea bass is considered to be a threatened species, although not yet technically endangered:

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.