Reader Feedback: New RMN Format

The new Rocky Mountain News format is hard to read. Apparently, the smaller the paper, the smaller the print. I suggest that they bring back the larger type and just print shorter stories. Actually, it would improve their reporting as well, since they don’t usually get to the truth until after the first five paragraphs anyway. More often than not, the headline and lead column are filled with editorial judgments and selective reporting that sensationalize and distort the actual story. Take for example the cover of today’s (1/30/07) sports section – Five reasons Todd Helton wasn’t traded to the Red Sox. Reason #5 – “Helton preferred to remain with the organization and be part of helping the Rockies eventually win.” Never mind the other four reasons, number 5 is the only one that really matters.
Page 15 - Business Section wastes the first four paragraphs of an obituary by building up and praising a former military guy whose claim to fame was formally objecting to the Vietnam War. Once again, paragraph number five says it all “His request was denied, and he ultimately was sentenced to a year in prison and given a dishonorable discharge.”
U.S. Military 1 - war protester 0, Greatest military in the history of the world - dead guy who accomplished nothing.
How about page 34 - Iraq forces avert major attack, a confusing headline at best. The fifth paragraph begins, “The fierce 24-hour battle was eventually won by Iraqi troops supported by U.S. and British jets and ground forces.” The good guys won and the terrorists got kilt, that’s all we need to know.
Newspaper readership is falling off everywhere. Those that do subscribe are generally old and getting older, which means we don’t see so well and we don’t suffer fools or foolish reporting, so bring back the BIG type and just cut to the chase and we’ll all get along a lot better.

Staying the Course

Just for the record, I still support the President. I have not jumped ship, lost my nerve, wavered in my convictions or confidence in his leadership. Despite the Conservative and Republican leaders who’ve come out publicly against ‘the surge’, I remain 100% behind George W. Bush. Sam Brownback, right on life – wrong on reaching out to Iran. Norm Coleman, great on the UN Oil for Food investigation – bad on beating back Baathists in Baghdad. John Warner, fine on increasing the size of the Army – weak on giving our troops the chance to win. Hagel, Snowe and Voinovich – RINOs all and ready to ‘cut & run’ along with every Democrat in Congress. How is it that among the 280 democrats in Congress, not one thinks that Iraq is worth the effort? What if Lot came to the Democrats today looking for just ten good men in order to avoid disaster? Could he find anyone other than Joe Liebermann and would the entire democrat party be turned into a pillar of salt?
The question today is – are we at war with Islam or Terrorism and is Islam a religion that espouses violence? Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslims, but All the Terrorists, we are at war with, are engaged in terror in the name of Islam. And furthermore, regardless of whether or not the Koran preaches violent Jihad against infidels, 100% of those, who seek to do us harm, are motivated by their belief in Islam. In other words, our enemies are engaged in a religious war while we are basically seeking security from their terror tactics. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that our will to fight (as a society as a whole), has diminished while the Jihadists’ Islamic fervor (which has burned in the hearts of Muslims for centuries and) will burn for as long as they believe they can defeat the West.
Let’s be honest, three times more Americans die every year, from errant prescriptions, than have been killed in Iraq since the initial liberation began in March of 2003. More pedestrians die in U.S. cities every year than the 3,000 soldiers killed in Iraq since 3/03.
Every year; 7,000 Americans die from accidental poisoning, 45,000 Americans are killed on our highways and 200,000 die from Cancer yet we don’t hear democrats bemoaning their loss, we don’t see the Media counting each death in headline after headline and we don’t see liberals mounting marches to protest these tragedies. Obviously, they don’t really care about the loss of human life. What they do care about is using the deaths of our brave volunteer soldiers to harm the Bush administration, to promote our failure in Iraq and to gain politically even at the expense of our Country’s security.
By and large, you don’t hear the troops themselves or their families belly-aching about the battle losses in Iraq. Quite to the contrary, it is these fine people who are amongst the strongest supports of the President and his efforts in Iraq and I for one, am proud to count myself among them.

Campos vs. Kristol

With the New Year’s execution of Saddam, the routing of Al Qaida in Somalia and now the hanging of Hussein’s top henchmen, 2007 is getting off to a pretty good start. Despite these positive developments, we can always count on Rocky Mountain News columnist, Paul Campos to find something to whine about (Commentary 1/16/07). Today, Campos is taking on Bill Kristol, Editor of the Conservative national magazine, the Weekly Standard, all-star panelist on the leading cable news round table on television and now, a weekly columnist with Time Magazine. As to the specifics, of his charges against Kristol; I would first note that none of the past statements (that he attributes to Kristol) are referenced. Second, if they are (in fact) Kristol’s words, then I suspect Campos presented them in isolation rather than in their complete context. As a long-time subscriber to The Weekly Standard and regular viewer of Fox News, I never recall Kristol making wildly optimistic and unqualified predictions about ‘smooth sailing’ in Iraq. As to the other points Campos attributes to Kristol [i.e. what constitutes real progress in Iraq, have certain events (in Iraq) been ‘historic’ and what degree of sectarian violence actually constitutes a civil war], I’ll leave those to Kristol himself to refute, but as to the timing of this particular Campos rant, I suggest the following: When Bill Kristol speaks to Conservatives on FOX News or in his own publication, the Standard, Campos could care less, but now that Kristol has earned access to a National liberal readership, Campos (and other liberals) is afraid that he will now have to actually debate a well-reasoned Conservative viewpoint.
Rather than simply tearing down everything Republican or Conservative, lightweights like Campos, will now have to actually advance alternatives ideas and solutions. Forced to put up or shut up - my money is on Kristol. Except for offering pointers on dieting, Campos has yet to get anything right. He’s a college law professor who never writes about the law and alongside an intellectual giant, such as William Kristol, America will see that Campos isn’t qualified to bag Kristol’s groceries.

Republican Majority – Killed by Friendly Fire

Only days after witnessing the parting of the Red Sea and being freed from generations of slavery, the Hebrews lost their way and caused Moses to destroy the original Ten Commandments. 3000 years later, Republicans forgot Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment and (like the ancients) are now doomed, once again, to wander in the ‘political’ wilderness.

In 1998, as Republicans recoiled at the immorality of Bill Clinton, they united behind candidate George W. Bush. Was he a perfect person? Did Republican Blue Bloods, Fiscal Conservatives, Religious Conservatives, Libertarians, Log Cabin Republicans and Neo Conservatives all think (he) was their ‘ideal’ candidate? Probably not, but did all these disparate groups unite behind one man and, like Reagan advised, did they all “speak no evil of (their) fellow Republican’ leadership? The answer is simply – yes!

Again in 2002 and 2004, there seldom was heard a discouraging word about Republicans by Republicans. No sooner had the President and the Republican Congressional majorities been re-elected, when our own conservative talk show hosts and pundits began publicly, banging away at Bush about; Dubai Ports, Guantanamo, Harriet Meirs, Immigration policy, Katrina, Rx Medicare benefit, Social Security Private accounts, Terrorist Surveillance and Interrogation programs and Troop levels in Iraq. No longer content to simply educate their audiences and constituencies about Conservatism, the Talk Show hosts and even Republican elected officials all decided they were now, the ‘smartest person(s) in the room’. Forget the fact that the President has immediate access to all the intelligence - all the time and is the one man who sees the ‘big picture’, these self-appointed know-it-alls began chipping away at Bush’s credibility, thereby giving Democrats and the liberal Mainstream Media (MSM) extra ammunition to discredit Republican leadership.
Even on the issue of Iraq, Republicans joined the ‘chorus of critics’ who openly criticized the Administration’s competence and management of that conflict, rather than acknowledging the enemy’s determination and resolve.

In retrospect, George W. Bush was both a Uniter and a Divider. He united Republicans of all stripes and got Republican majorities elected in both Houses of Congress as well as back-to-back Presidencies. Simultaneously, President Bush divided traditional Democrats from the Looney, liberal Left who were singularly driven by their irrational hatred of Bush and a desire to promote (his) failure in office.

Ultimately, when the going got tough – many Republican leaders and opinion makers went MIA, but not until they’d killed our own legislative majorities with ‘friendly fire’.
What’s the matter? Were there no longer enough Democrats to criticize? Couldn’t find any dangerous, liberal nut-jobs to focus in on? Who decided that Al Qaida, Ahmadinejad, Assad and Kim Jon Il were yesterday’s news? Way to go team! I shudder to think what Republicans will do for an encore…can you spell H.I.L.LA.R.Y?

Come home little Sunnis, come home

During the 35 year reign of Saddam Hussein, Sunnis’ ruled the roost. Despite their constituting only 10% of the indigenous population, the ruling Baathist Party not only put Sunnis in positions of power they also allowed and encouraged minority Sunnis to occupy homes and territory in traditional Shiite areas. Given the downfall of Saddam and the natural ascendancy of the majority Shiites, it’s not surprising they are now seeking a ‘perceived’ “Right of Return” to their historic neighborhoods and communities. Hence, the emergence of armed conflict, often called a Civil War, is simply an Ethnic Cleansing that must be allowed to reach its logical end. Such behavior was tolerated in Bosnia-Herzegovina and is a stated demand of the Hamas-led Palestinian government - surely Iraq deserves no less.
If the Iraqi Government and the United States Military really wish to see a significant improvement in the security situation in Baghdad, they should immediately encourage and facilitate the expulsion of these ‘Sunni-squatters’ from predominant Shiite neighborhoods and compensate their relocation in traditional Sunni towns. This may sound harsh, but ultimately it will require separating these tribal peoples geographically within Iraq in order for there to be peace. We can either wait until these ‘Sunni-settlers’ are killed off, one car bomb at a time, or bite the bullet now by exercising Eminent Domain, providing fair compensation and make Baghdad a Sunni-free zone.
The World Community cheered when Israel forced its Jewish citizens from their homes in Gaza despite the violence and difficulty in achieving that goal. In fact, Prime Minister Olmert’s Kadima Party was elected on a platform of similarly evacuating the West Bank and no one thought that idea was impossible. Saddam infused into Baghdad thousands of his own tribesmen from Kirkuk, Takrit and Samarra which then, artificially caused the capital city to be included in the ‘Sunni Triangle’ despite its historical Shiite identity.
The time has come for them to return home, get outta Dodge, make like a tree and leave. If we believe that Israelis and Palestinians can live “side-by-side”, then Shiites and Sunnis should be able to too – all they need is a little place they can call their own.