BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
IN BAD NEWS FOR BOO BOO, CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O DISCOVERED HE'D REALLY LOST INDEPENDENTS THIS WEEK.
A NEW POLL FOUND THAT 57% OF INDEPENDENTS DISAPPROVE OF HIS PERFORMANCE.
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, BARRY O DECLARED THAT HE WASN'T WORRIED, "AS LONG AS I HAVE THE MIDDLE, THE NON-PARTISANS, ON MY SIDE, I DON'T WORRY."
AT WHICH POINT WHITE HOUSE PLUS-SIZE SPOKESMODEL JAY CARNEY LEANED IN TO EXPLAIN TO BARRY O WHO INDEPENDENT VOTERS ARE.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Today the United Nations News Centre notes
that Martin Kobler declared, "Systemic violence is ready to explode at
any moment if all Iraqi leaders do not engage immediately to pull the
country out of this mayhem." Kobler is United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon's Special Envoy to Iraq and heads the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 839 violent deaths in Iraq so far this month -- two days left in the month, today and tomorrow. Today National Iraqi News Agency reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left six people injured, a Mosul roadside bombing left three people injured, 2 Iraqi border guards in Anbar Province were killed by men "wearing police uniforms," a Mosul suicide car bombing claimed the lives of 3 police officers and left eight more injured, a Baghdad car bombing (Karrada district) claimed 1 life and left nine people injured, 2 Baghdad car bombings (Binooq neighborhood and one "near the Mission Complex") left 6 people dead and nineteen injured, and a Ramadi
bombing assassination attempt on Anbar Province Governor Qassim
Mohammed al-Fahdawi left the governor unscathed but injured four of his
bodyguards. Al Rafidayn notes that motorcycles and vehicles have been banned in Baghdad today and tomorrow. Adam Schreck, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) count 33 dead in today's violence. Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jason Hanna (CNN) note that "since Monday alone, at least 120 people have been killed." Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Iraq Body Count,
161 people were killed in violence. If you add AP's 33 death toll for
today to that you 194 violent deaths since Monday morning.
UNAMI issued the following on Wednesday:
Baghdad, 30 May 2013 – On 29 May, the Special
Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG),
Mr. Martin Kobler, briefed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament (AFET) on the current developments in Iraq.
In his exchange of views with the parliamentarians, Mr. Kobler
expressed serious concerns over the heightened level of violence in Iraq
and the danger that the country falls back into sectarian strife, if
decisive action is not taken by its political leaders. “The country
stands at a crossroads,” the UN Envoy said, calling for a stronger EU
role in dealing with the developments unfolding in the country, and for
increased interaction with the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
Mr. Kobler also briefed AFET on UNAMI’s efforts to resettle the former
residents of Camp Ashraf to third countries. He deplored the lack of
cooperation of the residents and of their leadership with the UNHCR and
UN monitors, and urged them to accept concrete resettlement offers.
Stressing that “resettlement to safe countries is the only durable
option”, he called again on European Union member states to accept
former Camp Ashraf residents into their countries.
On violence in Iraq, let's move to the US. First, of all the times to
leave -- from a journalistic stand point, now is when you leave Iraq?
To be the last to leave, the last to be gone,
stolen from the ones who hung on to it.
To be the last in line, the ones that live on,
silhouette of a dream, treasured by the ones
. . . who hung on to it.
-- "Fireflies," written by Stevie Nicks, first appears on Fleetwood Mac's Fleetwood Mac Live.
Erik Hayden (Hollywood Reporter) reports
today that the last US TV network with a news bureau in Baghdad, CNN,
has announced they are closing it. They quote a spokesperson for CNN
(nameless because this is so embarrassing would you want your name
attached?) stating, "While CNN is departing its current brick-and-mortar
location in Baghdad, the network continues to maintain an editorial
presence in Iraq through a dedicated team of CNN stringers and
correspondent assignments as news warrants." This is when CNN pulls
out? And no one thought how this would hurt their news image just when
they're rebuilding and gaining viewers by supposedly focusing on news?
Hayden explains, "Fox News confirmed to THR that, after the recent closure of
their own bureau this year, they rely on stringers and correspondents
based in Iraq for their coverage. ABC News and NBC News have one
full-time producer based in the capital city."
The violence is at a five year high as CNN closes its bureau? It might
be interesting here to note Noam Chomsky's remarks about what happened
to the world press when the violence increased in East Timor. CNBC's Pozner and Donahue had Chomsky as a guest for the full hour on the April 20, 1993 and April 22, 1993 episodes. Excerpt.
Noam Chomsky: It's as if history set up a controlled experiment.
There were two major atrocities at the same time, same part of the
world, roughly comparable in scale. One of them was an Indonesian
invasion and annexation, East Timor. The other was Pol Pot atrocities
internal to Cambodia. The coverage -- The coverage was dramatically
different. The coverage of East Timor declined sharply as the
atrocities continued. The coverage of East Timor was pretty high before
the Indonesian invasion. It then declined and hit zero in both the
United States and Canada -- and most of the western world -- in 1978
when the atrocities really reached genocidal proportions. In Cambodia,
on the other hand, there was huge publicity. Within a few weeks of the
Khmer Rouge takeover, the New York Times was already denouncing genocide
and probably a few hundred or thousand people had been killed. Well
what was the difference? The difference was in one case the United
States was directly behind it. It was providing 90% of the arms. It
was providing crucial diplomatic support.
Phil Donahue: East Timor. The Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
Noam Chomsky: The US provided critical diplomatic support. Daniel
Moynihan took pride in the fact that he prevented the United Nations
from doing any action -- he writes about it with great pride. The US
gave them new offers of arms. As the attack peaked, Carter sent more
arms. And Cambodia was an enemy. You can be very moral about the
atrocities committed by an enemy.
And it's safer, career wise, to 'cover' Syria (call for war on Syria)
than it is to cover Iraq. The US is arming Nouri, they've sent more US
troops back in. No one wants to tell the truth. Dropping back to the April 30th snapshot:
December 6, 2012, the Memorandum
of Understanding For Defense Cooperation Between the Ministry of
Defense of the Republic of Iraq and the Department Defense of the United
States of America was signed. We covered it in the December 10th and December 11th
snapshots -- lots of luck finding coverage elsewhere including in media
outlets -- apparently there was some unstated agreement that everyone
would look the other way. It was similar to the silence that greeted Tim Arango's September 25th New York Times report which noted,
"Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could
result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on
training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to
[US] General [Robert L.] Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations
soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and
help with intelligence."
No other media outlet amplified Tim Arango's NYT report. No media
outlet covered the Memorandum of Understanding. The White House backs
Nouri al-Maliki and so you get no honesty and now you get even less
coverage. But war on Syria is wanted so Deborah Amos and others with
NPR end up in that country. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen as
an 'enemy' by the US government so McClatchy has someone covering it
and the New York Times has a whole squadron -- in fact their star
reporter would probably be alive today if he'd stuck to covering Iraq
but Syria was 'fresh meat' for the cannons of war and off he rushed. Turn
on the evening news on commercial US broadcast networks (CBS, ABC and
NBC) and you'll find reports from Syria. You won't find Iraq.
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