TGC Moves On?

Moved to www.ThatGayConservative.com

6,000

visitors since last June. Pretty cool!

Some US troops question Woodruff coverage

Folks are starting to learn that as far as journalists are concerned, it's all about them. United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Some US troops question Woodruff coverage: "Some US troops question Woodruff coverage By PAMELA HESS UPI Pentagon Correspondent WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The American media stood up and took notice when an improvised explosive device grievously injured an ABC News crew Sunday. In Iraq, and throughout the military, there is sympathy and concern for anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, but there is also this question: 'Why do you think this is such a huge story?' wrote an officer stationed in Baqubah, Iraq, Monday via e-mail. 'It's a bit stunning to us over here how absolutely dominant the story is on every network and front page. I mean, you'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something. 'There's a lot of grumbling from guys at all ranks about it. That's a really impolite and impolitic thing to say ... but it's what you would hear over here.' At least 2,242 troops have died in Iraq since the war's start, 1,753 of them killed in action. Another 16,000 have been injured, half of them seriously enough to require evacuation from the battlefield. According to the Pentagon, 60 percent of the deaths are the result of IEDs. IEDs have injured more than 9,200 troops, nine times more than gunshots. 'The point that is currently being made (is that) that press folks are more important than mere military folks,' a senior military officer told UPI Tuesday. The unavoidable consequence of war is this: People are savagely wounded and killed. Soldiers in Iraq watching the coverage on satellite television and reading the news on the Internet are getting the impression that the press has only just discovered this fact. It's not quite as simple as that, of course. Military personnel often express frustration that the media harps on military casualty reports at the expense of what they consider their successes in Iraq. However, as it promoted its story on Woodruff and Vogt Monday evening, the local ABC News affiliate in Washington showed a montage of exploding vehicles in Iraq -- footage culled largely from insurgents, who videotape the attacks and post them on Web sites to advertise or magnify their successes. The families of the 76 troops killed and 533 wounded in action in Iraq from the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland might say the war had already come home. "It's just a bit frustrating to see something so dramatized that happens every day to some 20-year-old American -- or worse to 10, 30-year-old Iraqi soldiers or cops alongside us. Some of the stories don't even mention the Iraqi casualties in this attack, as if they're meaningless," wrote the officer in Baqubah. Kathryn Montgomery, a professor at American University's School of Communication, has been thinking the same thing. "When you see the kind of coverage this story is getting it draws attention to the lack of coverage that hundreds of cases don't get," said Montgomery. Having a personal connection to someone injured or killed on the battlefield is a relatively rare experience for journalists. Fewer than 1 percent of the U.S. population is part of the military; very few reporters have served. The war is comfortably distant, until a fellow journalist is affected. It could have been me, we think. The full weight of war is hard to comprehend until it happens to you, or someone you know, or someone like you. Read the rest at the link above. H/T Drudge. The thing is, the liberal media don't consider anything that's being done in Iraq as successful. Look at the yammering, "objective" comments of Christiane Amanpour for an example. It's all about them. Iraq is a disaster and journalists are paying for it? WTF? Maybe they'll say "screw the troops, let's keep a count of how many journalists have died or been injured!". Well, we know that they're already saying "screw the troops!" in their usual round-about way. What they refuse to report on, and they need to, is the fact that the majority of people in this country are saying "screw the journalists!". Is it any wonder that nobody watches CBS-BS, ABC-BS, PBS-BS, NBC-BS, P-MSNBC-BS, CNN-BS etc. for their news? Is it any wonder that nobody reads the L.A. Times, The DNC Times, The WaPo etc. for their news anymore? But, just like the "Democrats", they will NEVER look at themselves to find out why. It's going to be either your fault because you're too damn stupid to know any better, or it will be Bush's fault. After all, it was Karl Rove who gave those documents to Bill Burkett, right? Footnote: Apparently Sen. Turban Durbin (D, Al-Jazeera) had no comment.

Satire?

Good question. Insurgents Regret ABC News Friendly-Fire Incident By Scott Ott, Editor-in-Chief, ScrappleFace.com News Fairly Unbalanced. We Report. You Decipher. (2006-01-30) — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, today expressed his regrets to ABC News for the injuries sustained by anchor Bob Woodruff and a videographer in what Mr. Zarqawi called, “this tragic incident of friendly fire.” “The American news media has always treated us well,” the al Qaeda leader said in a printed statement. “We were trying to kill U.S. and Iraqi soldiers when this unfortunate accident occurred. We pray to Allah for the swift recovery of the injured, and hope they can be back on the job soon.” A spokesman for ABC News said a preliminary investigation showed that the improvised explosive device (IED) which wounded Mr. Woodruff and his colleague Doug Vogt, was triggered by “an imperialist occupation of Iraq after the U.S. overthrew the nation’s duly-elected president, yet failed to find weapons of mass destruction.”

Dean In Deep Doo-doo.

DEAN UNDER FIRE FROM PARTY DEMS; NEARLY ALL CASH SPENT Mon Jan 30 2006 10:52:31 ET Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are privately bristling over Howard Dean?s management of the Democratic National Committee and have made those sentiments clear after new fundraising numbers showed he has spent nearly all the committee's cash and has little left to support their efforts to gain seats this cycle, ROLL CALL reports. Congressional leaders were furious last week when they learned the DNC has just $5.5 million in the bank, compared to the Republican National Committee?s $34 million. Senate and House Minority Leaders Harry Reid (Nev.) and Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), along with the Senate and House campaign committee chairmen Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have made their concerns -- directly or indirectly -- known to Dean, claims the paper. Emanuel was particularly upset last week upon seeing the latest DNC numbers. A lot of people are scratching their heads as to what?s going on,? said one senior Democratic aide. Another Democratic source familiar with the party fundraising apparatus said there is ?obvious displeasure? among the leaders. Developing... H/T: Drudge I see a future story of a monogrammed, jewel encrusted golden toilet and $2M dollar hair cuts.

Zawahri Releases Video

So apparently a videotape was released today to none other than Al-Jazeera. Here's essentially what he had to say, as reported at Breitbart.com "Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies," he said, referring to Bush. "Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses." The airstrike hit a building in Damadola, killing four al-Qaida leaders. Thirteen villagers also were killed in the strike, angering many Pakistanis. "The American planes raided in compliance with Musharraf the traitor and his security apparatus, the slave of the Crusaders and the Jews," "In seeking to kill my humble self and four of my brothers, the whole world has discovered the extent of America's lies and failures and the extent of its savagery in fighting Islam and Muslims." "My second message is to the American people, who are drowning in illusions. I tell you that Bush and his gang are shedding your blood and wasting your money in frustrated adventures," he said, speaking in a forceful and angry voice. "The lion of Islam, Sheik Osama bin Laden, may God protect him, offered you a decent exit from your dilemma. But your leaders, who are keen to accumulate wealth, insist on throwing you in battles and killing your souls in Iraq and Afghanistan and _ God willing _ on your own land." "Your leaders responded to the initiative of sheik Osama, may God protect him, by saying they don't negotiate with terrorists and that they are winning the war on terror. I tell them: You liars, greedy war mongers, who is pulling out from Iraq and Afghanistan? Us or you? Whose soldiers are committing suicide because of despair? Us or you?" "You, American mother, if the Pentagon calls to tell you that your son is coming home in a coffin, then remember George Bush. And you, British wife, if the Defense Department calls you to say that your husband is returning crippled and burnt, remember Tony Blair." Oops! I forgot to H/T: Drudge Now of course, just like the bin Laden tape, the liberals will try and spin this (somehow) into an endorsement of support for Bush. In reality, though, read these lines and think about the lying points and Bush bashing that's been served up by the left for the past few years. Sounds more like bin Laden and Zawahri are on the DNC and MorOn.org's mailing list. Richard Miniter, in his book Disinformation points out that bin Laden doesn't have the massive wealth that we are supposed to believe. However, I think he may be on the payroll of George Soros.

Our Right to Security

From OpinionJournal.com THE WAR ON TERROR Our Right to Security Al Qaeda, not the FBI, is the greater threat to America. BY DEBRA BURLINGAME Monday, January 30, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST One of the most excruciating images of the September 11 attacks is the sight of a man who was trapped in one of the World Trade Center towers. Stripped of his suit jacket and tie and hanging on to what appears to be his office curtains, he is seen trying to lower himself outside a window to the floor immediately below. Frantically kicking his legs in an effort to find a purchase, he loses his grip, and falls. That horrific scene and thousands more were the images that awakened a sleeping nation on that long, brutal morning. Instead of overwhelming fear or paralyzing self-doubt, the attacks were met with defiance, unity and a sense of moral purpose. Following the heroic example of ordinary citizens who put their fellow human beings and the public good ahead of themselves, the country's leaders cast aside politics and personal ambition and enacted the USA Patriot Act just 45 days later. A mere four-and-a-half years after victims were forced to choose between being burned alive and jumping from 90 stories, it is frankly shocking that there is anyone in Washington who would politicize the Patriot Act. It is an insult to those who died to tell the American people that the organization posing the greatest threat to their liberty is not al Qaeda but the FBI. Hearing any member of Congress actually crow about "killing" or "playing chicken" with this critical legislation is as disturbing today as it would have been when Ground Zero was still smoldering. Today we know in far greater detail what not having it cost us. Read the rest at the link above. Comments to follow later. UPDATE: Actually, I don't know what else to add to that other than the fact that it's pretty despicable the way that the liberal left has been playing games with our national security. I see very little evidence that the left has any real interest in protecting the United States of America. And yes, dammit, we do deserve protection. If the left does give a shit about it, I'd be hard pressed to find any evidence of it.