Things you won't hear in the U.S.

jimpeel said:
I have proven over and over that there is this bias wherein the MSM will dwell on the negative and ignore the positive.
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You haven't proven a thing really. I've proven your premises are flawed.

I have shown that there are people at the topmost positions in the military who agree that this agenda is killing Americans.
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Yes, he is saying is that "the U.S. strategy in Iraq was doomed to fail. And in a scathing speech today, Sanchez blamed the civilian leadership at the top".

Seems his criticism for the media is that it is toting the right wing line. An agenda that is killing American's.

I have posted links to MSM journalists admitting in their own voice that they do not think that positive news is "newsworthy".
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Where? That non-existent 4 month trend?
 
<Donut[AFK]> HEY EURAKARTE
<Donut[AFK]> INSULT
<Eurakarte> RETORT
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-RETORT
<Eurakarte> QUESTIONING OF SEXUAL PREFERENCE
<Donut[AFK]> SUGGESTION TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
<Eurakarte> NOTATION THAT YOU CREATE A VACUUM
<Donut[AFK]> RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> ADDON RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> COUNTER-RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-COUNTER RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> NONSENSICAL STATEMENT INVOLVING PLANKTON
<Miles_Prower> RESPONSE TO RANDOM STATEMENT AND THREAT TO BAN OPPOSING SIDES
<Eurakarte> WORDS OF PRAISE FOR FISHFOOD
<Miles_Prower> ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTENCE OF TERMS

:D
 
:hmm: Are you being serious?

Why don't you just type it into your lil' address bar up top there, and see where the road takes you. ;)
 
More proof the surge is working; and more proof of the press finding the bad in everything good. Talk about a tragicomic article. LOL

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-sh...-write-plight-underemployed-iraqi-undertakers

Surge Successful? Just Write of Plight of Underemployed Iraqi Undertakers
By Ken Shepherd | October 17, 2007 - 01:00 ET

McClatchy Newspapers is taking a somewhat ghoulish, pessimistically-toned look at the poor souls who suffer from our success in Iraq: undertakers. That's right, with less people dying, business is slow for Iraqi undertakers, report Jay Price and Qasim Zein in their October 16 article (accessed via Yahoo News),

"As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch.":

NAJAF, Iraq — At what's believed to be the world's largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn't good.

A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.

[...]

The burials aren't expensive, usually $200 or less, but many people draw their income from them.

[...]

The sights and smells of working with the bodies, particularly those torn by war, are hardly pleasant, but it becomes a mundane job like any other, said Jawad Abuseba, 40.

His family has dug graves for more than 300 years, he said. His hands are thick with calluses after 22 years of digging with a shovel, basket and pickaxe. With their nails torn and their skin gray, his hands look as though they're dead, too.

"There is nothing beautiful in this career, but I cannot do any another job," Abuseba said.

Shiites feel so strongly about being buried here that when it's too dangerous to travel, families have buried their loved ones elsewhere temporarily, then disinterred them for reburial here.

Even with less violence, many of those buried here are victims of the war, and the tragedy of each loss offers a counterpoint to workers' worries about money.

[...]

"Certainly, when the number of dead increases I feel happy, like all workers in the graveyard," said Basim Hameed , 30, a body washer. "This happiness comes from the increase in the amount of money we have."
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This has got to take the cake for the strangest way a media outlet has found to find a downside to the success of our troops in Iraq.

—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20071023.asp#5

ABC Airs Upbeat Iraq Story on Fallujah's
'Remarkable Turnaround'

A rare upbeat story on Iraq ran Monday night on ABC's World News. Anchor Charles Gibson touted "an extraordinary comeback story" about Fallujah, the city of one of the war's bloodiest and longest battles, but now where reporter Miguel Marquez discovered bustling markets, Marines welcomed by kids and no car bombs or shootings of Marines in several months. Gibson effused about how "we have an extraordinary comeback story tonight from the place where the Marines suffered their worst losses of the war. Fallujah is undergoing a remarkable turnaround. Tribal leaders, local officials and the U.S. Marines have united behind a common cause. Bringing security to a place that had been one of Iraq's most insecure."

Over matching video, Marquez described how "the markets bustle. Traffic chokes the streets. Marines, once despised here, are now a welcome sight." Viewers saw video of a Marines with kids before Colonel Rich Simcook told Marquez: "This is one of my big measures of effectiveness, where, you know, kids will come up to you, you know, they feel safe to come out and play." Speaking with a Marine Sergeant, Marquez wondered: "When's the last time you were shot at these days?" The Marine replied: "I'd say, end of March." Marquez saw a corollary sign things are going well: "The last car bomb in Fallujah was in May." Though Marquez added some caveats about high unemployment and the lack of weapons for the Iraqi police, he concluded on the bright side: "There are encouraging signs. Schools just opened, and enrollment is at its highest since before the war. Construction, from huge infrastructure projects to fixing sidewalks, is everywhere. Fallujah even sports solar street lights..."

[This item was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

ABCNews.com, in the World News section, has video of a shortened (about one minute) version of the Marquez story. Direct link to the abbreviated video: abcnews.go.com

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the October 22 World News story:

CHARLES GIBSON: In Iraq itself, we have an extraordinary comeback story tonight from the place where the Marines suffered their worst losses of the war. Fallujah is undergoing a remarkable turnaround. Tribal leaders, local officials and the U.S. Marines have united behind a common cause. Bringing security to a place that had been one of Iraq's most insecure. ABC's Miguel Marquez reports tonight from Fallujah.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ: The markets bustle. Traffic chokes the streets. Marines, once despised here, are now a welcome sight.

COLONEL RICH SIMCOCK, U.S. Marines: This is one of my big measures of effectiveness, where, you know, kids will come up to you, you know, they feel safe to come out and play.

MARQUEZ: Colonel Rich Simcock has been the main battlefield commander in Fallujah for the past ten months.

SIMCOCK: Every day, it just gets a little better.

MARQUEZ: In that time, he has witnessed a sea change.

SIMCOCK: For someone that doesn't know Fallujah, you know, you'd look around like, well, this is kind of a dirty city. We're walking almost in the center of the city. Numerous battles have been fought in this area, and we're walking around, no one shooting at us.

MARQUEZ: Battles that left the city devastated.

SERGEANT CHUCK BURTON, U.S. Marines: And there was times, we were rolling through the city, you get there through sundown, you were guaranteed to either get popped on or get shot at.

MARQUEZ: And when's the last time you were shot at these days?

BURTON: I'd say, end of March.

MARQUEZ: The last car bomb in Fallujah was in May. Soon after, tribal leaders, fed up with al-Qaeda's violent ways and strict Islamic codes, looked to the Marines for help. This is something that was unthinkable just a few months ago -- shops that are filled with produce, people on the streets, but Fallujah still has a very, very long way to go. As security has improved, tens of thousands of people have returned. The downside, unemployment has rocketed to 70 percent, a problem Fallujah's young mayor is trying to solve now. "Terrorists give money to out-of-work civilians," says the mayor. "We are under pressure to create jobs quickly so young people won't be tempted to fight." So they are expanding the police force rapidly. "We're getting lots of volunteers," says the police chief. "When we ask for 50 more officers, we see 200 people step forward." The Iraqi police, not the Marines, are now in charge of security here. But many officers don't have proper weapons, training, or even uniforms. Does this stop bullets?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: No, no.

MARQUEZ: There are encouraging signs. Schools just opened, and enrollment is at its highest since before the war. Construction, from huge infrastructure projects to fixing sidewalks, is everywhere. Fallujah even sports solar street lights. It is a city in recovery, with a lot of hard work ahead. Miguel Marquez, ABC News, Fallujah.
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From the Media Research Center:

Only ABC Reports Military's Stats on
Violence Plunging in Iraq

Lt. General Raymond Ordierno on Thursday reported significant progress in reduced violence in Iraq, but of the broadcast network evening newscasts only ABC's World News bothered to cover the positive trend as anchor Charles Gibson introduced a full story on how "military officials gave one of the most upbeat assessments of the security situation in Iraq that we have heard since the opening months of the war." The CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly skipped the positive trend, but CBS had time for a story on the investigation of the September shooting of civilians by Blackwater and NBC aired a piece on Hillary Clinton "playing the gender card." The Washington Post and New York Times on Friday also made very different news judgments on the importance of the positive direction as the Post put the news on its front page while the Times hid it in a story, on an inside page, about Iran's role in Iraq.

This was the third time in less than two weeks that ABC has uniquely highlighted positive developments in Iraq. On Tuesday, ABC ran a piece about "booming" shopping markets and significantly improving life in Baghdad and eight days earlier World News showcased Fallujah's "extraordinary comeback story."


Referring to the briefings by Ordierno via satellite from Iraq and by the Secretary of Dense at the Pentagon, ABC's Jonathan Karl relayed that "nobody over here is anywhere near ready to declare victory, but the military statistics tell an unmistakable story. Violence in Iraq is down, and down considerably. Baghdad's marketplaces are slowly coming back to life, as violent attacks in Iraq have fallen to less than half of what they were a year ago." Specifically, "roadside bombs fell in October to an average of 20 a day -- still high, but the lowest level since October 2004. Iraqi civilian deaths have fallen to a third of where they were a year ago. And after the deadliest summer ever for U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. combat deaths fell to 29 last month, the lowest level in more than three years."

Karl ended with some caveats, pointing out the lack of political progress and how the 30,000 troops in the "surge" will be "going home in the coming months, raising the question of whether the violence will go up when they leave."
 
jimpeel said:
Is it four months of decrease now?
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You realize that it's only the 13th right? And that there have been lower numbers in previous years?

Not sure what you think you're proving but it is good to see some lower numbers. If we start pulling them out I bet they really drop.
 
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