Wryly Reading Reuters

Today seemed as good a day as any to analyze Reuter's spin via this Saturday Yahoo News Headlines snapshot ("-->" denotes my snarky analysis of the spin the headline is meant to impart) :

• World leaders praise pope as force for peace --> That Iraq war was d*mn bad

Amazingly, W's praise for "a faithful servant of God" and Schroeder's positive comments about his having "changed our world" actually appeared in the article before Hugo Chavez' praise for the Pope's opposition to the Iraq war -- but Kofi was immediately after W with his recollection that the Pope "felt that in war, all are losers". Well, except for those damn uppity Iraqis that actually think freedom is a good thing and worth sacrificing for...

• Rome prepares for influx of pilgrims --> Suprisingly neutral

• Pope's death triggers scripted ritual --> Damn scheming Catholic morons

• Selection of new pope shrouded in secrecy --> Damn scheming Catholic morons

• New pope unlikely to be from United States --> Serves that unilateral warmonger W right

• Daylight-saving time returns this weekend --> Even Reuters doesn't screw W in one like this -- yet...

Worthy Of Praise? -- Preemptively NYeT!

And of course, the NYeT has its smears all ready and primed for the barely passed away Pope. He was instrumental in wrecking the rag of Duranty's Communist icons don't you know...

WHOOPS! (via Roger)

AP Sights Reality, Can't Quite Get There

Via James the AP seems to be getting dangerously close to reality:

Influential Sunni scholars encouraged Iraqis to join the country's security forces and protect the country, issuing an edict Friday that departed sharply from earlier warnings against participating in the fledgling police and army. . . .

Friday's edict, endorsed by a group of 64 Sunni clerics and scholars, instructed enlistees to refrain from helping foreign troops against their own countrymen.

But Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, a cleric in the influential Association of Muslim Scholars who read the edict during a sermon at a major Sunni mosque, said joining the Iraqi security forces was now necessary to prevent the country from falling into "the hands of those who have caused chaos, destruction and violated the sanctities."

If heeded, the announcement could strengthen Iraqi security forces, who are trying to take over the fight against the Sunni-led insurgency.

But of course reality is both more positive and complex:

IRAQ: Sunni Arab Clerics Giving Up On Al Qaeda
April 1, 2005: Another major Shia religious festival, which lasted from 29-31 March, ended without incident. The government made a major effort to provide security for the large gatherings of Shia Arabs attending religious ceremonies and moving around in southern Iraq. Sunni Arab terrorists, especially al Qaeda, consider these ceremonies a major insult to Sunni religious beliefs. The government deployed a security effort on the same level as the one rolled out for the January elections. Coalition troops deployed mostly as back up and quick reaction forces. Al Qaeda tried to use suicide car bombers, but none of them got through to large assemblies of Shia Arabs. In one incident, a car bomb went off and killed five people, which was the most any of the attacks were able to do.

Another reason the attacks were not successful was that, in the days before March 29th, police arrested hundreds of Sunni Arabs and foreigners suspected of being terrorists. Many were, and this is because an increasing number of Sunni Arab religious leaders have changed their minds about armed resistance to democracy, and coalition forces. This has made it easier for Sunni Arabs to pass on information to the police. The Sunni religious leaders have done the math and concluded that they were backing the losing side. Some have made deals with the government, to provide information, or pro-government sermons, in return for favorable treatment (money, access to jobs for their followers, reconstruction projects). But most have simply stopped preaching violence, or cut back on the intensity of their calls for violence against Kurds, Sunni Arabs and infidels (non-Moslems). Many Sunni Arab clerics have also noted that most of their followers are not in favor of terror attacks that kill Iraqis, no matter what their religion or ethnicity. The terrorists have largely given up attacking American troops. The level of such attacks is about half what it was a year ago. The reason is that the attackers are much more likely to fail, and get killed, when they attack American troops. It's much easier, and safer, to attack Iraqi civilians, or even Iraqi police and troops. But the Iraqi government forces are becoming more lethal as well, and Iraqi government forces usually have American troops backing them up.

The impact of all this has been striking. The overall level of terrorist violence has fallen by about half in the last month. Terrorist attacks that target Iraqis has been very unpopular in Iraq, and caused even many Sunni Arabs to turn against al Qaeda and Sunni Arab terrorist organizations. But at the street level, most Iraqis are more concerned with criminal gangs (who commit far more violence against Iraqis than terrorists) and corruption (which is encountered daily, while you might go weeks without even hearing about a terror attack in your neighborhood.)

Maybe the AP should venture out of their hotels a bit more...

Just A Misdemeanor Ma'am -- And I'll Keep What I Wanted Thanks Very Much

Don't worry -- our judges and legal system are right on top of things. Sandy Burglar only gets a misdemeanor and gets to keep hidden what he stole:

He returned most of the documents, but still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration.

You don't want to know what I really think of this...

UPDATE: Glenn has much more and is lots more civil about it than I would be so I suggest you go there instead.

ANOTHER: Thank you ScrappleFace!

Cuckoo Courts Continue

Getaloadofthis:

Moreover, whatever happened to the public's "right-to-know?" I find it ironic that every deeply personal detail of a politician's life is fair game for the press --- and if that same politician stands on a stage full of reporters screaming that his political enemies are "liars," "queers," and "child molesters," --- that there are judges who think it should be ILLEGAL to let the public even know what was said.

Furthermore, have these justices really considered the chilling effect --- of not allowing a neutral reporting privilege -- that this could have on free speech? Consider this real world example cited by press lawyers:

"Otherwise, they said, for example, the press could not have reported last year on the charges lodged against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth because Kerry's supporters said their charges were false."

Imagine simply reporting on a story like the Swift Boat Vets for Truth and getting a cease and desist letter from the Kerry campaign threatening legal action for simply detailing their allegations.

Depending on how this court case comes out, in a future election, we may not have to just imagine it...

WTF, over? LOL RTWT!

Churchill At Home

Check out Ward-baby at the Anarchist Bookfair! (Warning: Not for minors!)



Any more questions? [via Charles]

Maybe We Need To Keep The Trapdoors ...

for the Demo donkey when it dies. Via Rantburg comes some Baghdad insights:

Some learning will need to take place among the population. The old Iraqi sewage system used large trap doors instead of manholes. When one Iraqi saw a new US-sized manhole, he protested. They are too small. How, he wondered, would he fit his donkey down them when it died? (That tells you something about the state of the sewer system in Baghdad under Saddam.)

A quick and worthwhile read. Go. Now.

Suddenly Within Reach?

Strategy Page provides a perspective update:

March 30, 2005: For most of March, enemy attacks have been running at less than half the level of the past few months. Attacks have not been this infrequent since last April. It is believed that the attacks are fewer because of poor morale among the attackers, and the loss of many terrorist and Sunni Arab leaders. The anti-government forces never really recovered from the beating they took in Fallujah last November. While most of the enemy leaders got out of Fallujah and set up shop in other Sunni Arab cities, the failed effort to stop the January 30th vote exposed many of the surviving terrorist groups to attack by Iraqi and coalition forces. The terrorists also suffered from the increasingly bad reputation they were getting. When the “resistance” began 18 months ago, it was pitched as a “popular uprising” against “foreign occupation.” But the foreign troops proved to be deadly opponents, and they were aided by a growing number of Iraqi police and troops. In fact, the Iraqi government forces were seen as a deadlier enemy to terrorists and anti-government gunmen. An Iraqi cop could more quickly identify who was bad, or hiding guns, or bomb making equipment. So the terrorist increasingly turned their guns on Iraqis. Over the last six months, the anti-government efforts turned increasingly into brutal terrorism against Iraqi “collaborators.” Recently, the terrorists have been releasing more video tapes of Iraqis, or foreign civilians (particularly Arabs or Turks), working for the government or coalition forces. But pure terror often doesn’t work, and tends to backfire. It’s backfiring now, and the terrorists are trying to come up with a new tactic. There aren’t many options. Iraqis have gotten numb to all the suicide bombings and assassinations. Moreover, people have more to fear from criminal kidnappings (there are several hundred a month), robbery, hijacking and burglary. Foreign terrorists are in greater danger than ever before, with more Iraqis willing to turn them into the growing number of Iraqi police. In more cases, Iraqis are taking the law into their own hands, and killing foreigners, or Iraqis, suspected of terrorist, or criminal, activity.

The war isn’t over by any means. As terrorists and anti-government gangs fade, Iraqis have to deal with the always larger number of criminal gangs, and the long tradition of government corruption. In the West, we take “law and order” for granted, but in Iraq, that sort of thing is seen as an impossible dream that is suddenly within reach.

And read the preceding March 28 entry for a real eye-opener...

(Remember residues? The Tinfoil Apocalypse dictates that no more escapism is allowed.)

Democrat Patriotism Watch

This is how my Democrat neighbor flies his flag:



I kid you not.

In fact I look straight at it out my front door every day and it's been this way for months now.

I've now developed a sort of morbid fascination as to how long this will go on.

Did I mention that he never lights it and never takes it down? You could have guessed the latter of course...

Happy Easter!

"I don't give a hoot about the school's uniform guidelines."