Posted on 12/30/2006 3:10:25 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
" Egypt's corruption index had improved from "highly acute" to "rampant." "
Too bad -- they were shooting for "arafat-esque".....
As re the rest of the article -- ya just couldn't make this stuff up.....
I would like to make a video today with the voiceover of the studipd today show commentary about the hanging with scene after scene of Saddam atrocities...mass graves, the gassed, and the wounded.
Why are they backing EVIL?
This is part of why there's so much discontent...really, really bad government.
Things are pretty good although I was too lazy to grind enough coffee beans this morning and I am now drinking what is essentially hot water :(
As if to prove my point about laziness, Mark Finkelstein reports this morning that the hanging of Saddam was suspect, according to that weasel, Francona, because he was the only one executed. In fact, two of his henchmen were executed along with him, but that fact would have gotten in the way of Francona's action line, so he just ignored it. Feh!
I wish they had. They might go right on lying and reporting only what fits their point of view, but they might feel a wee bit embarrassed about it.
" really, really bad government "
One of the defining hallmarks of "really, really bad government" is blaming its failings on some external "villain"..
ie, bad ME governments blame Israel and the US...
and the US Congress blames Bush....
It was ever thus.... ;~(
" but that fact would have gotten in the way of Francona's action line, so he just ignored it. Feh! "
You're preaching to the choir, here...
I've realized for years that "news" story lines are pre-determined, and any facts that emerge are either distorted to fit, or are ignored completely...
I don't know if pre-determined is the right word...the journalists tend to look through the same lenses that filter out facts and information that don't jive with their point, or twist it until it looks right.
Most of us are somewhat guilty of that...but we want the newsies to try to be as impartial as possible...and in their failure to do that, they betray the public trust...and destroy any inherent right to be an arbiter of society, IMHO....
" I don't know if pre-determined is the right word... "
One of the more tasteless ways in which the 'news' business has devolved is that, in the rush to get "scoops", the norm has become to report on events *before* they happen (a phenomenon I have dubbed the 'age of the anticlimax').
Although I grant you your point about "filtering", I stand by my charge of "pre-determination".....
There is a lot of that going on...I was thinking of breaking stories that happen out of the blue...
From the "The game goes into extra innings.." file:
" Hundreds of Somalis riot against Ethiopian soldiers
Houston Chronicle ^ | 30 Dec 06 | JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Posted on 12/30/2006 7:57:44 AM CST by saganite "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760255/posts
" ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Anti-Ethiopia riots erupted Friday in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, while masked gunmen took to the streets for the first time, a day after Ethiopian-backed troops captured the city from Islamist forces.
Hundreds of Somalis flooded into bullet-pocked boulevards to hurl rocks at the Ethiopian soldiers, set tires on fire and shout anti-Ethiopian slogans.
"Get out of our country!" they yelled. "We hate you, Ethiopians!"
In northern Mogadishu, residents said men with scarves over their faces and assault rifles in their hands lurked on street corners. Mogadishu has plenty of gunmen, of every age and every clan, but gunmen hiding their identity is something new and may be a sign of a developing insurgency.
"We're going to turn this place into another Iraq," said Abdullahi Hashi, a construction worker who said he was part of a new underground movement to fight the Ethiopians.
Many analysts have said that if the Ethiopian troops protecting the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia linger in the country too long and their intervention turns into a full-scale occupation, it will uncork a long and nasty guerilla war.
At the same time, it seems that many Somalis appreciate the presence of the Ethiopians for helping to bring some stability.
Just a few hours after the protests, thousands of residents came out to warmly greet Ali Mohammed Gedi, the prime minister of the transitional government and one of the leaders who called in the Ethiopian muscle.
Many people in Mogadishu are still absorbing the power shift that occurred this week, when the Islamists who once ruled much of the country quickly collapsed under Ethiopia's overwhelming force, enabling the transitional government to suddenly take control.
Islamist leaders said Friday that they were not simply giving up. While most of their troops have abandoned the cause — shedding their uniforms and shaving their beards — the Islamist leadership said it was regrouping in Kismayo, a city along Somalia's southern coast.
Not far from Kismayo is a lightly populated, forested area that Western intelligence officers said has served as a terrorist hideout for many years.
"We will not leave Somalia," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a top Islamist leader, told the Associated Press on Friday. "We will not run away from our enemies. We will never depart from Somalia. We will stay in our homeland."
The Islamists uttered vows to fight to the death for Mogadishu, their former stronghold. But when thousands of Ethiopian fighters and troops from the government reached the city's outskirts on Wednesday, the Islamists fled and the city fell the next morning.
Ethiopian officials have justified the intervention in Somalia by saying that the Islamist were extremists who had their eyes on part of Ethiopia, and said their troops would remain on Somali soil until that threat is wiped out.
The Ethiopian and transitional government troops seem to be focused on Mogadishu, but many Somalis suspect that once that city is stabilized, the bulk of the Ethiopian forces will shift to Kismayo.
Gedi, meanwhile, is getting to work. He announced Friday that the transitional government was imposing martial law for the next three months. He asked Mogadishu's various clan militias to turn in their weapons or face the consequences. "
Nutshell BUMP! That's why on most days we can easily make a rundown of the news without bothering to watch it, and get the "action lines" in basically the right order.
Time will tell who the warlords back....
From the "Row, row, row your boat...." file:
" Gulf states to counter Iran with largest exercise ever
WorldTribune ^ | December 29, 2006
Posted on 12/30/2006 8:12:01 AM CST by nuconvert "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760261/posts
" ABU DHABI — The U.S. is advising the Gulf states in preparation for their largest ever military exercise to answer Iran's growing strategic clout in the region.
Gulf Cooperation Council sources said the six Gulf Arab members would conduct an exercise by the regional Peninsula Shield force over the next two months. They said the exercise, hosted by Oman, would contain air, ground and naval components in the Gulf region. All six GCC states have agreed to participate in the exercise, GCC sources said. They said the exercise, planned in coordination with the United States, was approved by GCC leaders in their summit in Riyad on Dec. 10.
GCC member states have been increasingly concerned by Iran's emerging nuclear capability and the success of Hizbullah in its war with Israel.
"The exercise is designed to begin a serious effort at interoperability and regional defense," a GCC source said. "We have been planning this exercise carefully with our allies."
The source said Britain and the United States have been advising Peninsula Shield on the forthcoming exercise. The six GCC militaries employ mostly U.S. and British weapons platforms and also receive training from London and Washington.
The exercise would take place in either late January or early February 2007, the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai Al Aam reported on Thursday. The newspaper said the exercise would be the largest since Peninsula Shield was formed in 1984.
"The exercise would test the command capability of Peninsula Shield as well as establish requirements to develop regional defense," the source said.
Al Rai Al Aam said the GCC was mulling a recommendation to increase Peninsula Shield to 100,000 troops by 2025. Last year, GCC leaders suspended Peninsula Shield and combat troops were withdrawn from headquarters in the Saudi town of Khafer Baaten.
Another GCC recommendation was the inclusion of Yemen in regional defense. Yemen, the poorest country in the region, has long sought to enter the GCC "
Only time I go to the broadcast newsies is if the story's so breaking it hasn't had time to get to the net well.
That doesn't happen very often.
Takes a lot to beat the reaction time of the Haaretz newstracker
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