lot to note and i'm going to a play tonight so this will be spotty at best as i hurry.

first from fair which is probably 1 of my favorite resources i've come to enjoy from the common ills.

CBS Sees Iraq Improvement--Again

Despite the widespread violence in Iraq, CBS Evening News offered a different take on its June 2 broadcast: Things are getting better.
Anchor John Roberts acknowledged that while the past month has seen tremendous bloodshed, "Some U.S. and Iraqi officials are hopeful the terror campaign may soon begin to ease." That storyline was advanced by reporter Kimberly Dozier, who managed to claim that despite the dramatic upsurge in suicide bombings (more in May than in the previous year combined), "U.S. commanders tell CBS News they're seeing signs the militant bomb-makers may be running out of willing delivery men."
And what was the evidence? Apparently just their word.

when will the operation happy talk end? wasn't it supposed to be a cakewalk? weren't we supposed to have roses strewn in our path? at what point does the press realize how stupid and creepy they're looking?

swallowing lies and spitting them out? is that what they teach at journalism school?

as i've noted before my background was public relations. this wouldn't fly as a p.r. release.

you know why?

because if this were a p.r. campaign, some 1 in the room would note we had no credibility.

therefore we wouldn't make sweeping claims.

we'd zero in on 1 or 2 details and make that the basis of the ad campaign.

but the bully boy has always over reached and the press has been there to cushion and then deny each fall.

i thought they traded in truth?

maybe that's why they make such bad liars for bully boy?

but if we were working on an oreo campaign and the cookie was known to cause people to sneeze, we wouldn't be saying 'it will improve your health!' we'd know we'd be laughed out of the room. we'd say 'oreo, the tasty classic.' or 'oreo: split the middle.' (trademark slogans by rebecca winters! use of them will require payment.) (i'm joking.)

but bully boy and the compliant press want to launch yet another operation happy talk despite the fact that the product's not selling and no 1 has faith in it.

need proof? let's note this from the common ills.


"Most Americans no longer believe the war in Iraq has made their country safer" (Andrew Gumbel, The Independent)


Most Americans no longer believe the war in Iraq has made their country safer, and more than 60 per cent of the country believes the military is bogged down in a conflict that was not worth fighting in the first place, according to a new opinion poll offering only bad news to the Bush administration.The poll for The Washington Post and ABC News poll, published yesterday, was the first survey in which a majority of Americans rejected the White House's argument that invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein was good for domestic security. The poll also suggested that opinions were almost exactly evenly divided between those with a positive impression of President Bush's "war on terror" and those it viewed it negatively.
The findings were particularly stunning, since security was among the leading issues on which Mr Bush won re-election last November. At that time, his approval ratings on anti-terrorism policy were roughly 60-40.
[. . .]
The Iraq findings were the most striking, because the public has clearly rejected the line put out by President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney that the US is turning the corner and that the insurgency is in its last throes. Almost 900 Iraqis and Americans have been killed in the past six weeks. Iraq's oil pipeline to Turkey was hit by a new sabotage attack yesterday.
Pru e-mailed the above from the UK's Independent. It's from Andrew Gumbel's "Americans turn against Bush and a war on Iraq that is getting nowhere."

see? the plan won't sell.

and i want to note pru who's from the uk. this is how bad our press is, elisabeth bumiller in particular, they laugh at it in england. pru and friends are preparing a reading of elisabeth bumiller's latest mindless ravings and they're calling it, get this, the dementia monologues.
you'd think that would worry bumiller but no doubt she's telling herself 'i'm so popular!'


please go over to buzzflash and read their interview with congressman john conyers. he's brave and they do wonderful interviews so it's more than worth reading.

x and not z was the new york times reporter who chose to go on the record at the common ills.
i'll make my comments on that tomorrow. you can read x's reply in "Felicity Barringer (New York Times) replies to the May 15th article." by the way, who reads dopey? oh right no 1. (for any 1 confused, dopey is a blogger who desperately wants to have an audience and no 1 cares what dopey wants but dopey's managed to get a tiny bit of visibililty with baseless attacks on c.i.)

sorry to rush but i'm on thereze's computer and we and our dates are headed out the door '5 minutes ago, rebecca!' so that will have to be it for tonight.