Yet another disparity..... [Cheney shooting]

[Starving_Artist]

@Frank

Yes, because Sen. Schumer is the man in charge of the liberal media. You’ve found us out.

It’s clear to both Sen. Schumer and me that he and they are of a like mind, and that he takes for granted that the press will attack Cheney on a wide range of issues should such a news conference take place – or is he just pulling this notion out of thin air, as well?

[mhendo]

@Clothahump

Read BIAS by Bernard Goldberg.

The facts are in evidence, my friend. The bias has been evident for years; Goldberg simply detailed it for all to see.

Read it; found it unconvincing.

I see your Bias and raise you Eric Alterman’s What Liberal Media?.

Do you really want to get into a citation battle, because i got plenty more where that came from?

And i actually read the conservative critiques like Bias. I’ll bet you can’t say the same about books by liberals like Alterman.

@Clothahump

And I’ll paraphrase your line back to you: just because you keep repeating this
mantra - there’s no bias - doesn’t make it true.

Never said there wasn’t bias. Never said it once. I challenge you to find a place where i did.

I’m simply arguing that what bias the media exhibits is not the liberal, anti-conservative one that mouthbreathing morons like you fantasize about.

[tagos]

@Clothahump

The press loved the administration? That’s news to the rest of us. The press has been a continual big player in the “Bush stole the election(s)” game from 2000 onward. Given an opportunity to print something positive about Bush and his administration vs. the opportunity to print something negative, they go the negative route far, far more often than not.

Here’s just one example: as has been said before, the troops on the ground and the civilian contractors in Iraq overwhelmingly state that we are making solid progress and that things are nowhere as bad as are being reported. Why aren’t more of them interviewed by the mainstream media? Probably because they don’t want a repeat of the Matt Lauer incident, where he went over there, set up some interviews, asked questions loaded toward the negative and got handed his own ass by the troops on live TV. That was by far the best episode of “Today” that I have seen in years.

Instead, what do we get? Emphasis on roadside bombings, helicopter crashes, civilian deaths and up to the second detail every time Cindy Sheehan scratches her ass. Ah, yeah - that’s gooooood stuff, makes the administration look bad; put it as the top story on the 6:00 news.

Let’s look at what the Special Inspector-General for Iraqi Projects had to say last month shall we?

SIGIR is concerned about whether there are sufficient resources
to support capacity development for national and local government
offi cials, operations and maintenance, infrastructure security,
development of strategic cities, and private sector development.

SIGIR investigations have led to the arrest of four Americans for their roles in a major bribery and kickback scheme involving millions of dollars in rebuilding contracts.

The pattern of fi nancial misconduct revealed by the audits led to a series of SIGIR investigations. SIGIR auditors identified material control weaknesses and subsequently found that U.S. government agents and coalition partners did not properly control and account for Iraqi cash assets. Th e auditors found indications of potential fraud and referred these matters to SIGIR investigators.

although projects completed in the last 18 months have generally
delivered expected outputs—more capacity in megawatts, increases in
barrels of oil per day, millions of additional treated cubic meters of water per
day—these outputs have not enabled Iraq to meet current demand, and in many cases, services have not returned to pre-war levels.

Things are going so well, things haven’t returned to pre-war levels. Let messengers go forth to all corners of the world?

The lethal environment for reconstruction in Iraq has claimed 467 contractor lives since March 2003. High costs for contractor security continues to
impact reconstruction efforts.

More good news from those SIGIR

Recent Progress In Iraq Reconstruction

SIGIR’s initial analysis of reconstruction progress through Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes metrics leads to two critical conclusions:

* Services are not returning to pre-war levels

  Although completed reconstruction projects generally have delivered expected outputs-more capacity in megawatts, increases in barrels of oil per day, millions of additional cubic meters of water per day-these outputs have not enabled Iraq to meet current demand. After 18 months of intense reconstruction activity, many services have not returned to pre-war levels, particularly in the Electricity sector and the Oil and Gas sector.

* The end of U.S. government construction programs uncertain

  Based on the pace of construction project starts and completions, and the rate of Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) expenditures, it is difficult to forecast with any confidence the end of the U.S. government construction programs. With the untenable costs of extended presence in Iraq, this becomes a critical concern and warrants further review.

Now let me think. Unsupported opinion of ‘some guy on the radio’ as reported without cites by a self-outed cretin or the Special Inspector-General for Iraqi Reconstruction: - who should we believe, who should we believe?

Nope, it’s just too close to call.

I guess we’ll have to leave that judgement to the Solomonic wisdom of other posters.

Now if you will excuse me I have some tricky fish in a barrel that need shooting.

[Merijeek]

@Marley23

I’ve heard it said that the definition of insanity is repeating an action over and over again and expecting a different result. See where this is going with regard to your Pit threads, Clothy?

Reagan smash! Reagan smash!

-Joe

[FinnAgain]

Tagos already did a great job refuting your earlier idiocy… honestly you partisan shill, with every poll and objective metric out of Iraq saying the same thing, how is it newsworthy that many troops think that things are going well? If you had more than a pair of neurons which aren’t on speaking terms, you’d realize that they’d have to run a headline like “Troops out of touch with reality in Iraq.”

@Clothahump

Read BIAS by Bernard Goldberg.

What is it with this damn memetic infection? It’s like ideological athlete’s foot. We’ve done this dance before. Look at GIGObuster’s excellent post to start things off.

@Clothahump

The facts are in evidence, my friend.

Ya don’t say. And just how much of a massive media frenzy did we have over, oh… the Downing Street Memo? IIRC it got nowhere near the ammount of attention it deserved. But, then again, if the facts don’t make Bush look good, why, they must be Librul Faktz[sup]tm[/sup]! (Which are just a hair’s breadth away from Traitor Faktz) And of course, in the interest of satisfying some on the right wing, we’d need new ‘facts’, that might not be as true at the Librul Faktz, but they make Bush look better, after all.

This is really bizarre. The Right is solidly in control of this country. Solidly. But many in their camp still portray themselves as the underdogs. However ‘rough’ the press has been on Bush, it’s a fraction of what they actually should have been doing. The facts speak loud and clear, and they should be reported. Sorry that they don’t fit the propaganda.

[tagos]

Because I like kicking rabid puppies lets see what the Brooking Institute hads to say about how swimmingly everything is.

Iraqi Index

INSURGENCY INDICATORS

2004 2005
Insurgent attacks (total) 26,496 34,131
Car bombs 420 873
Suicide car bombs 133 411
Roadside bombs 5,607 10,953
US Soldiers Killed 848 846
US Soldiers Wounded 7989 5939

ESTIMATED STRENGTH OF INSURGENCY NATIONWIDE

Month Estimated strength of insurgency nationwide
November 5,000
December 5,000
January 2004 3, 000-5,000
February N/A
March N/A
April 5,000
May 15,000
June 15,000
July 20,000
August 20,000
September 20,000
October 20,000
November 20,000
December “more than 20,000”
January 2005 18,000
February 18,000
March 16,000
April 16,000
May 16,000
June 15,000-20,000
July “no more than 20,000”
August N/A
September “neither gaining strength nor weakening appreciably”
(some estimates indicate higher numbers, please see footnote)
October 15,000 – 20,000
November 15,000 – 20,000
December 15,000 – 20,000
January 2006 15,000 – 20,000

Yep - the insurgency is clearly on its last legs. Mission practically accomplished.

But meanwhile, back to reconstruction.

Reconstruction shows little progress

A series of recent reports by the US government, non-governmental agencies and private organizations shows that despite spending more than $9 billion in Iraq in the past two years, the US has had only “limited progress” in important sectors such as oil and power.

Reuters reported earlier this month that three US government reports released in July show “ambitious reconstruction goals are falling short.”

Soaring security costs are a major stumbling block in what is billed as the biggest US foreign aid operation since the post-World War II reconstruction of Europe.

Congress's investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office [GAO], said in its latest report that as of May 2005, power generation in Iraq was at a lower level than before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Iraq's oil output, which US officials initially said would help pay for rebuilding projects, has also dropped in the past two years, said the GAO's report on Iraq reconstruction.

I admit that these cites fade like scotch mist in the blazingly awesome glare of the authority of ‘some guy on the radio’ as bought to us by Clot but it’s all a couple of minutes on google was able to unveil.

[Merijeek]

@FinnAgain

This is really bizarre. The Right is solidly in control of this country. Solidly. But many in their camp still portray themselves as the underdogs. However ‘rough’ the press has been on Bush, it’s a fraction of what they actually should have been doing. The facts speak loud and clear, and they should be reported. Sorry that they don’t fit the propaganda.

It’s even more entertaining when you consider the following memes:

Righties are the tough ones
Libruls are pussies

Righties are only trying to help
Libruls are the source of all that’s wrong everywhere

Libruls do nothing but shoot themselves in the foot every time they perform an action or open their mouths*

You think being the tough, manly ones who are always doing the right thing, they’d complain less.

*The entertaining thing is that Oxycontin Limbaugh and his ilk always seem so frustrated that the Democrats (exclusively represented by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy) are so incompetent. You think he’d be celebrating. I would imagine it’s because the Dems are trying to frame debates rather than allow others to do it, but what do I know?

-Joe

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@FinnAgain

This is really bizarre. The Right is solidly in control of this country. Solidly. But many in their camp still portray themselves as the underdogs. However ‘rough’ the press has been on Bush, it’s a fraction of what they actually should have been doing. The facts speak loud and clear, and they should be reported. Sorry that they don’t fit the propaganda.

I’m not going to wade into the discussion of the media - again I suggest that when it comes to being Gene Kelly in a rainstorm of pee, some republicans are joyous urolagnists.

However, I did want to point out a construct that has been very helpful to me in terms of understanding our Republican cousins a bit better. Many of them are “Whiny Ass Titty Babies” (WATB). This construct helps to explain behavior that ranges from the persecution complex associated with the arguments of “liberal media” to policy issues regarding taxes and social services to orientation towards a desire to give up liberties in favor of security (“Please, please save us Daddy Bush!”).

Try it out - it may help to clarify a model of Republicanism for you!

[tagos]

And the avalanche of Liberal Facts continue.

International Crisis Group Report

Several important conclusions emerge:

*
  The insurgency increasingly is dominated by a few large groups with sophisticated communications. It no longer is a scattered, erratic, chaotic phenomenon. Groups are well organised, produce regular publications, react rapidly to political developments and appear surprisingly centralised.
*
  There has been gradual convergence around more unified practices and discourse, and predominantly Sunni Arab identity. A year ago groups appeared divided over practices and ideology but most debates have been settled through convergence around Sunni Islamic jurisprudence and Sunni Arab grievances. For now virtually all adhere publicly to a blend of Salafism and patriotism, diluting distinctions between foreign jihadis and Iraqi combatants – though that unity is unlikely to outlast the occupation.
*
  Despite recurring contrary reports, there is little sign of willingness by any significant insurgent element to join the political process or negotiate with the U.S. While covert talks cannot be excluded, the publicly accessible discourse remains uniformly and relentlessly hostile to the occupation and its “collaborators”.
*
  The groups appear acutely aware of public opinion and increasingly mindful of their image. Fearful of a backlash, they systematically and promptly respond to accusations of moral corruption or blind violence, reject accusations of a sectarian campaign and publicise efforts to protect civilians or compensate their losses. Some gruesome and locally controversial practices – beheading hostages, attacking people going to the polls – have been abandoned. The groups underscore the enemy’s brutality and paint the U.S. and its Iraqi allies in the worst possible light: waging dirty war in coordination with sectarian militias, engaging in torture, fostering the country’s division and being impervious to civilian losses.
*
  The insurgents have yet to put forward a clear political program or long-term vision for Iraq. Focused on operations, they acknowledge this would be premature and potentially divisive. That said, developments have compelled the largest groups to articulate a more coherent position on elections, and the prospect of an earlier U.S. withdrawal than anticipated is gradually leading them to address other political issues.
*
  The insurgency is increasingly optimistic about victory. Such self-confidence was not there when the war was conceived as an open-ended jihad against an occupier they believed was determined to stay. Optimism stems from a conviction the legitimacy of jihad is now beyond doubt, institutions established under the occupation are fragile and irreparably illegitimate, and the war of attrition against U.S. forces is succeeding. 

Care to put a positive spin on this, Clot?

[Merijeek]

@tagos

Care to put a positive spin on this, Clot?

Well, HAL stock was at $20.68 per share on March 21, 2003. This morning it opened at $69.36.

U S A! U S A! U S A!

-Joe

[wring]

@Merijeek

Libruls do nothing but shoot themselves in the foot every time they perform an action or open their mouths*

Conservatives, by way of contrast, shoot their friends in the face…**

** Sorry, but I found I couldn’t resist the straight line.

[Clothahump]

@Marley23

I’ve heard it said that the definition of insanity is repeating an action over and over again and expecting a different result. See where this is going with regard to your Pit threads, Clothy?

Nah, it’s more like tossing fish food in the water. I post something with relevance, the fools rise up in mass like farm-bred trout and strike at it. The screaming commences about how it’s not relevant and I’m a dirtbag for posting it in the first place, etc., etc.

It’s been sort of amusing , but frankly I’m getting bored with the predictability. My analogy of farm-bred trout is not far off the mark; soooooo predictable that it’s not really sportsman-like to do it.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Clothahump

My analogy of farm-bred trout is not far off the mark; soooooo predictable that it’s not really sportsman-like to do it.

Actually, it is: you’re not my chum.

Daniel

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

@Clothahump

Nah, it’s more like tossing fish food in the water. I post something with relevance, the fools rise up in mass like farm-bred trout and strike at it. The screaming commences about how it’s not relevant and I’m a dirtbag for posting it in the first place, etc., etc.

It’s been sort of amusing , but frankly I’m getting bored with the predictability. My analogy of farm-bred trout is not far off the mark; soooooo predictable that it’s not really sportsman-like to do it.

Are you seriously saying you’re trawling?

[Slacker]

@Clothahump

Nah, it’s more like tossing fish food in the water. I post something with relevance, the fools rise up in mass like farm-bred trout and strike at it. The screaming commences about how it’s not relevant and I’m a dirtbag for posting it in the first place, etc., etc.

It’s been sort of amusing , but frankly I’m getting bored with the predictability. My analogy of farm-bred trout is not far off the mark; soooooo predictable that it’s not really sportsman-like to do it.

Yes… that’s it exactly. You just wrap that little theory around you like a warm quilt and give up trying to convince us silly trout that you’re right and we’re wrong. It’s kind of sad to give up and let us wallow in our vast ignorance, but you gave it your best shot.

Bye now.

[Merijeek]

@Clothahump

Nah, it’s more like tossing fish food in the water. I post something with relevance, the fools rise up in mass like farm-bred trout and strike at it. The screaming commences about how it’s not relevant and I’m a dirtbag for posting it in the first place, etc., etc.

It’s been sort of amusing , but frankly I’m getting bored with the predictability. My analogy of farm-bred trout is not far off the mark; soooooo predictable that it’s not really sportsman-like to do it.

Gosh, Humpalump, does this mean we won’t see any more “The Librul Media Is Evil!!!” posts from you?

Is this a promise? Or will your tiny brain just GOTO 10 ?

-Joe

[mhendo]

@Clothahump

Nah, it’s more like tossing fish food in the water. I post something with relevance, the fools rise up in mass like farm-bred trout and strike at it. The screaming commences about how it’s not relevant and I’m a dirtbag for posting it in the first place, etc., etc.

To turn your icthyological reference into a poker analogy: the only fish at this table is you.

@EddyTeddyFreddy

Are you seriously saying you’re trawling?

My question also.

[Clothahump]

@EddyTeddyFreddy

Are you seriously saying you’re trawling?

Nope. My posts are quite valid. It’s just the responses that are predictable, and I am likening them to farm-raised trout that will strike at anything tossed in the water.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Clothahump

Nope. My posts are quite valid. It’s just the responses that are predictable, and I am likening them to farm-raised trout that will strike at anything tossed in the water.

I think you’ll find that trout can’t help themselves: when a mosquito or other small, annoying pest comes within reach, they gotta strike.

Daniel

[El_Kabong]

@Clothahump

It’s just the responses that are predictable, and I am likening them to farm-raised trout that will strike at anything tossed in the water.

Yes, it is rather predictable that if one posts something blindingly stupid, other posters will respond with remarks along the lines of “How could anyone be so blindingly stupid”, isn’t it?

Really, sounds to me like you launched this thread solely to entertain yourself by getting a rise out of people. Seems like there’s a name for that; what is it again? Dang, can’t remember…