Matters of the Media
June 16th, 2006There was a time in American history — there was an era in American history — wherein a candidate could invest money into a real estate project, lose it all, and still be accused of being a crook because of it. That era occurred not too long ago, either, as it was Bill Clinton in 1994 who faced that scrutiny over Whitewater. Today’s time is a different one, filled with Tom DeLays and Indian Casino Tribes, and so the Speaker of the House of Representatives can can make a 300% profit on a shady land deal and not have any bad press befall him. Our press is deeply disillusioning, both for the way it treats some news and ignores others. Like the fact that a key document was confiscated from Zarqawi’s personal collection, and it backs what Iraq War proponents have been saying.
The document describes “the current bleak situation” and says, “Time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance.” “Their assessment is that they are doing remarkably poorly and that we’re doing far better than many people assume the United States and the Iraqi government are doing,” said Bruce Hoffman, who holds the RAND Corporate Chair in Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency.
The document cites the improved Iraqi national guard, massive arrest operations, a crackdown on financial contributions, as reasons for the crisis. And the document suggests the answer is “to entangle the American forces into another war” with Iran. “In essence, their strategy is to create another Iraq, to enmesh the United States in another struggle, in another conflict, that will divert our attention, that will divert our military resources, that they hope will give them the breathing space to regroup so they can carry on the struggle,” says Hoffman. Iraqi officials said there was no question of the document’s authenticity. “Well, if I find something in your pockets, then that’s authentic, isn’t it?” al-Rubaie said. But U.S. officials said the document was not, in fact, found on or near Zarqawi’s body but in a raid three weeks earlier on other targets.
But we’re losing the war, and should pull out by the end of the Year. Right Senator Kerry? (To clarify: I believe that, at latest, we should be out of Iraq, for the most part, by the end of next year, and significant progress in withdrawal should begin in the middle of next year. I do not believe that the time is now to leave and take all our troops. No.)
Here we have an article about climate change, asking if America can go green. I take offense at a paragraph near the conclusion, however:
Shortly after Gore was elected vice-president, he proposed a tax on energy - specifically on the energy content of fossil fuels. It was defeated ignominiously, even though the Demo-crats still controlled Congress. Gore never raised the prospect of an energy tax again. Four years later he flew to Japan to salvage the Kyoto Protocol when negotiations seemed on the verge of breaking down. The Clinton administration eventually signed the protocol but never presented it to the Senate for ratification. Though Gore knew that the very future of the planet was at stake, he apparently concluded that pressing for action was hopeless, or politically inexpedient, or both. Talk about an inconvenient truth.
It is true that Al Gore didn’t publicly raise the prospect of an energy tax. He was the Vice President, not the President. Before then, however, he waged a war against most everyone in the Cabinet for Clinton to push for the tax. Clinton did, and it was defeated. I take it that Al Gore should’ve single-handedly overruled the President and the Congress? In that case, he did all he could, muhc llike he did with the Kyoto Protocol. It was clear to everyone that the Protocol would never pass in the Senate, and Clinton made the decision to let it die without a vote. Al Gore didn’t make that decision, and in that sense I defend him, although I think it was cowardly of Clinton not to submit the treaty.
Gore, however, saved the Kyoto Protocol internationally by flying abroad when the negotiations were falling apart. Without him, the nations that have signed onto it would not be, as there’d be no protocol. Give him credit for that, and the blame for environmental failures and political cowardice to Clinton. Not that environmentalists ever gave Gore any credit for anything, or that the media ever did, for that matter. But for what the media won’t do, I will.