Can I kick it? No, you can't.

No News?

Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist, aside from having the worst dye-job of any major syndicated writer, also routinely writes some of the lamest, chicken-hawk apologist drivel seen in major newspapers around the country. This week, however, he penned an almost lucid, only moderately paranoid and defensive opinion about the Lib'rul Media™. The gist of it was that things are going better, maybe even great in Iraq, and no one is really talking about it. The Democrats and the Lib'rul Media™ have picked a dangerous position, calling the war lost, and boy, are you pinko scum gonna pay now that things are so hunky-dory in Iraq.

And I suppose on scale, things have improved somewhat. American deaths seem to be down, suicide bombings are down to a Beirut/Saigon level of carnage, and I'm pretty sure any US Senator that wants to can still take a brigade of Marines and three helicopter gunships with him and stroll leisurely through a Baghdad market. Take that, Defeat-o-crats!

Thomas thinks that this means the tide of anti-Republican sentiment in this country will soon shift, Americans will return to blindly backing this war of choice, and we can get around to swearing in President Giuliani in 2009. Please, please, don't let him wear a dress to the ceremony...

But the media being what it is (Liberal? No. WHORES.), doesn't really like that whole "no news is good news" thing, nor should they. If things are going well in Iraq, then they will find something to focus on, perhaps something that has been utterly ignored since September 2001.

Domestic issues.

Relax, I'm not only talking about your illegal maid, Congressman. Let's keep talking about the president and Republican congressmen who have decided to make a partisan issue out of health care insurance for middle class children who currently lack coverage, and the right-wing attack on a 12 year-old boy who told his story. Let's talk about immigration. Let's talk more about the shift of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the super-rich, stagnating wages, skyrocketing energy prices, education reform, Scooter Libby, the Walter Reed Scandal, illegal wiretapping, Alberto Gonzalez or a hundred other truly important considerations as yet another election approaches.

By all means, the less the media focuses on the Iraq fiasco, the better I'll like it. Iraq barely makes my top five things that Bush has completely fouled up.

C'mon, newspeople. Cal Thomas is a feeble old man. Can't we grant him a last wish and spend a few minutes in each newscast talking about how great things are in Baghdad? You know, maybe after you ferret out the facts on some of these other issues, if you have the time.

And the balls.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007