I cannot think of a better use of bandwidth:

We are a group of ordinary people who wanted to do something to make it easy for our troops to find out how the vast majority of people feel about them. This website provides links to many of the great things that are being done to support our troops. The contributors to this site are listed in the upper right of every page. None of us are professional journalists. We’re just ordinary folks, doing what we can to make life a little better for our troops, the families of our troops, and other ordinary folks who want to be counted.

We are biased. We support our troops 100%. The people who post comments to this site share our bias.

Check out Keeping The Home Fires Burning, right now.

(via a small victory).

This morning, on the Today show, Peter Arnett apologized for the interview he gave to Iraqi TV, saying he made a ?stupid misjudgement.? Then, this evening I read this:

“Fired by America for telling the truth,” said the Daily Mirror in a front page headline, adding it had hired the “legendary war reporter” to carry on telling the truth.

“I am still in shock and awe at being fired,” Arnett wrote for the newspaper, which is vehemently opposed to the war. “I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it.”

I honestly believe he has a screw loose. He ALREADY apologized for it.

Isn’t this a bit ridiculous? It seems a story was breaking that Geraldo had been removed from IRAQ, according to Drudge the story was developing… THEN a bit later Geraldo came on FoxNews with a live report, accusing other news networks of starting the rumors, THEN this:

31 Mar 2003 17:03:55 GMT
US military moves reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq

(I am not quoting any part of the story since it is OBVIOUSLY not true, and the fact that he was on the news LIVE about an hour ago.)

Who do you think started the rumor? CNN or MSNBC? My guess is MSNBC, trying to smokescreen the (cough) loss of Peter Arnett from their line up (cough).

Update: Here is ANOTHER link to this story.

Would someone please stop the insanity!!!!!

An “American Idol” finalist is facing trial next month on charges he assaulted his teenage sister and battled with cops while resisting arrest, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Corey Clark, 22, was arrested last October following a disturbance in his family’s Topeka, Kansas home. Neighbors called police after hearing a girl yelling inside the Clark residence on SW 33rd Terrace. One witness told TSG that while he heard loud noises coming from the home, “what finally caught my attention was a lot of screaming. Then I knew somebody was getting hurt.”

Tsk tsk tsk. Some idol.

When you say,

After speaking with Arnett, General Electric Co.’s (GE) NBC said in a statement that “Peter Arnett and his crew have risked their lives to bring the American people up-to-date, straight-forward information on what is happening in and around Baghdad.” The network said Arnett’s “impromptu interview with Iraqi TV was done as a professional courtesy and was similar to other interviews he has done with media outlets from around the world. His remarks were analytical in nature and were not intended to be anything more.”

You actually mean,

You’re fired.

A simple quote:

?IT WAS wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state controlled Iraqi TV ? especially at a time of war ? and it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview,? NBC News President Neal Shapiro said in a statement. ?Therefore, Peter Arnett will no longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC.?

Veteran television correspondent Peter Arnett, who has been covering the war with Iraq for NBC News through an arrangement with National Geographic Explorer, went on Iraq’s state television network and praised Iraq’s treatment of journalists.

In a transcript of Arnett’s comments during the interview, he seemed to praise Iraq’s Ministry of Information, saying it has “allowed me and many other reporters to cover 12 whole years since the Gulf War with a degree which we appreciate and that is continuing today.”

Of course they have been courteous and cooperative to some of the journalists within their borders, how else would you build your propaganda machine to the level they have without the help of journalists within their own country? Oh, don’t start. Journalists within the “control of the regime” are no longer objective reporters since they CANNOT state anything that is not approved by the regime. Enough said.

A Columbia University professor told thousands of students and faculty that he would like to see “a million Mogadishus” referring to the 1993 ambush in Somalia that killed 18 Americans and inspired the movie “Black Hawk Down.”

The professor, Nicholas De Genova, also called for the defeat of U.S. forces in Iraq and said, “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military.” And he asserted that Americans who call themselves “patriots” are white supremacists.

I was not there, nor do I know anyone who was there, but this sounds like a very disturbed man who needs “an attitude adjustment”. Exactly who is this guy? Here is some information from the Columbia University website:

Nicholas De Genova,
Faculty Fellow, Anthropology/Latino Studies

Nicholas De Genova is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Program in Latina/o Studies at Columbia University. He was previously Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. His ethnographic research explored the social productions of racialized and spatialized difference in the experiences of transnational Mexican migrant workers in Chicago.

I would encourage you to contact him, but my mother always warned me to stay away from possibly rabid animals.

The World Health Organization doctor who first identifed the outbreak of a deadly mystery illness died of the disease on Saturday.

Italian Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, a WHO expert on communicable diseases, died in Thailand where he had been receiving treatment after becoming infected while working in Vietnam, the U.N. agency said.

Like I said before, keep your eyes on this one…

To date, SARS has killed at least 55 people and sickened 1,485, with the biggest number of cases and deaths in China’s Guangdong province, where an earlier outbreak began in November.

Reuters is reporting that U.S. military commanders are ordering a 4-6 day pause in Iraq advances. (I heard this via FoxNews of course). No link yet. Will update when I see one.

Update: Here is the link.

In a statement Friday, Sarandon said that “considering the depletion of federal funds for community programs and the faltering economy, it is disturbing to me that the United Way is letting partisanship determine its support base”.

“Once again, the shortsightedness of the powerful will end up hurting those in need.”

Yeah, let’s blame the cancellation on anyone (or anything) other than your record.

Their decision had nothing to do with partisanship, or the “powerful”. Their decision was made (if you paid attention to their statements) because (and I quote), “the organization decided the event had the POTENTIAL to become divisive”.

Did you get that? These people wanted their annual fund-raiser, not the potential for a “political platform for Susan Sarandon”.

Get it? Got it! Good. Now Go.