How Many People Know These Things?
Today’s Summary of Undercovered News
Whether or not you were against the war, you had to be stirred by that powerful image of Saddam’s statue being pulled down by Iraqis in a spontaneous expression of joy and relief as Baghdad fell in April of last year. Except now we find out that it wasn’t spontaneous. The LA Times reported on July 3rd that
It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.
At a time when people were starting to note that the Iraqis were not greeting our troops with “garlands and flowers,” as Dick Cheney had promised, the video of the statue coming down was an important boost to the administration’s image-makers. I’m not suggesting that the staged statute destruction was ordered by higher-ups in the administration (although with this crowd, you can’t totally rule it out), but I do think the story deserves far more play than it has received. That picture is one of many phony images that the Bush people have used to try to build a portrait of a “strong leader.” There were such stunts, of course, as the infamous “Mission Accomplished” sign and Bush’s attempt to disavow an administration role in putting it up on the aircraft carrier. There were those fake video news reports pushed by the administration to local TV newsrooms and aired 53 times by about 40 stations. Then there was the fake turkey Bush served up to our troops for a photo op.
Yes, all presidents try to fully leverage the office for photo ops. But, as with so many levers of power, Bush has pushed too hard, with calculated cynicism and disrespect for the American people.
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This story just broke yesterday, so it’s hard to tell whether it has “legs,” but I’ll bet most Americans won’t hear too much about it from the national or local media unless somehow the issue comes up again in the election campaign:
HOUSTON, July 8 - Military records that could help establish President Bush’s whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.
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It is well-documented that the Bush administration has politicized, to an unprecedented degree, our government’s health and science regulatory agencies and advisory boards. But how many American women are even aware that their lives could be affected by the recent re-appointment of Dr. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee? Here’s Planned Parenthood’s take:
Dr. Hager co-authored a book that recommends scriptural passages and prayers for problems like headaches and premenstrual syndrome, and he is widely known to be opposed to prescribing contraceptives for unmarried women. He also played a prominent role in the creation of a petition designed to pressure the FDA into rescinding its approval of mifepristone.
All of this was public record when President Bush appointed Dr. Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee in 2002. And his anti-choice record has only worsened since then.
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Since I’m talking about under-reported stories, I have to tell you about seeing NBC News anchor Brian Williams’ little homily on the broadcast of the New York fireworks on July 4th. His was one of a number of celebrity intonations of American virtues irritatingly inserted in a corner of the screen. I’ve heard that Williams is a nice guy, and I’m sure he’s sincere, but I had to laugh. He said essentially that he was lucky to live out his fantasy of becoming a journalist and that we’re fortunate in this country to be able to report things even when people get upset about it. The speech was more full-blown and pious than I’ve just related, and as I was listening to it, I chuckled because I was trying to imagine the last time NBC News really took a chance and courageously exposed, for example, Bush administration malfeasance. The only time NBC talks about such things is when it’s forced to because another news outlet, usually print or Web, has already reported the story. And, no NBC, you can’t count “Dateline,” which generally goes after small potatoes.
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Today’s Worth Checking Out
Colonel David Hackworth (ret.), raises the question, “Will the New Iraq Defense Force Hack It?,” and offers a pessimistic answer.
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Today’s Kicker
This is a downright weird story out of - guess - California (although it must be said, the story doesn’t involve the usual faddists, rock musicians, Hollywood-governor types and the like). This time, the perp is the button-downed former mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan. Riordan is close to Gov. Hummer Terminator, who tapped him to be his Secretary of Education. Last week, the Secretary was at an event in Santa Barbara to promote summer reading. I’ll let an AP story take it from here:
The conversation, videotaped by KEYT-TV, took place July 1. The girl, 6-year-old Isis D’Luciano, asked Riordan if he knew her name meant “Egyptian goddess.”
Riordan replied, “It means stupid dirty girl.”
After nervous laughter in the room, the girl again told Riordan the meaning of her name.
“Hey, that’s nifty,” he said.
Have a good weekend!