With the FISA “reform” bill now in the Senate, it’s deja vu all over again.

As it most likely will be with our alledged Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill.

I’m still not sure what kind of verbage will appeal to her to oppose FISA “reform” (something she’s shown a total unwillingness to do).  Here was my latest stab.

Dear Senator McCaskill:

What is the difference between a democracy and a police state?  In the former, the governmenet cannot spy on you unless they suspect you are commiting a crime.  If the latter, they simply monitor you “preemptively”, THEN decide whether you’ve committed a crime.

The latest atrocious FISA “reform” bill, which I urge you to oppose, is simply another step down that path towards a police state.  Your stance on previous FISA bills has shown an unwillingness to stand up to basic democratic (with a small “d”) principles as outlined in the Constitution.

I bet if this were a similar attempt to gut gun ownership, you’d be singing a far different tune.

Please, finally, stand up for the Constitution and oppose the FISA bill (or support a filibuster or whatever).

I went to my St Louis Election training course yesterday. It was OK. There were about 30 people there – could always use more. Nothing new much was added until the question and answer period.  

When we covered who could come into the polling areas we were told, besides folks associated with the election that challengers and the media. I asked about bloggers. Can a blogger come in and interview/tape like a local TV station? The instructor didn't know so they went and asked an election judge. I wish I could recall the judges name. They said no. No bloggers. Only real media with real media credentials. Interesting. We can have Fox, CNN, and more but not anyone that might cover it from the Left.  

[poll id=”

31

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( – promoted by Clark)

In a recent post on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s “The Platform”, intern Alex Mayer refers to the recent Daily Show interview with Lara Logan, where Logan describes how difficult it is to get coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan into the mainstream media lately.  He notes that Logan’s claims are supported by a recent article in the New York Times that shows that coverage of the war in Iraq has dropped precipitously in recent months.  This is all fine and good reportage, but check out the next doozy from Mayer:

The reason for this? I’d be willing to bet that the correlation between the drop in violence, insurgent attacks, and U.S. casualties in Iraq and a drop in news coverage is by no means coincidental.

To support his claim, Mayer notes that “Havard-educated” blogger Richard Fernandez reached the same conclusion, writing, “Written off as a morass rapidly descending into chaos, Iraq is threatening to become a regular country.”  Mayer cites Fernandez’s blog “The Belmont Club”, but forgets to mention that “The Belmont Club” is actually hosted by Pajamas Media, the right-wing news site founded by the same guy who runs Little Green Footballs.

He then blathers on about the traditional right-wing talking point that the media never reports the good news from Iraq:  

Headlines like ‘Roadside bomb attacks in Iraq decline by 90%”, for example, don’t make the front page or the nightly news.

The headline he’s talking about is from this article, which uses the brilliant methodology of comparing American deaths from IEDs in May ’07 to those in May ’08 to get their results.  Unfortunately, there’s no mention of the obvious problems with this methodology:

 1.  May ’08 is clearly an outlier.  April ’08 had more than twice as many deaths and June ’08 already has more deaths.  Also, May ’07 had many more deaths than the months around it.

 2.  It equates “attacks” on Americans with fatalities.  There might still be the same number of attacks with less fatalities, which hardly would be a sign of Iraq being more stable.

 3.  By focusing exclusively on American forces, it ignores the fact that roadside bombs often target Iraqi security forces. (see below).  Considering that American forces are traveling on the roads less since the surge began, this is a pretty significant omission.

So, in honor of Mayer’s quasi-journalism, I give you, below the fold, the recent news the media hasn’t been reporting.  I’ll leave it up to you to decide if this suggests that “we are winning the war”.

From McClatchy (via Juan Cole)…

Monday, June 23:

Baghdad

A roadside bomb targeted a National Police patrol in Waziriyah, near the cotton wool plant intersection at 11.30 a.m. Monday, injuring three policemen.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Qahira, near the water reservoir at noon. No casualties were reported.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Salahuddin Square, Kathimiyah neighbourhood at around noon. No casualties were reported.

A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Adil neighbourhood at around 1 p.m. No casualties were reported.

Member of Local Council in Madain, 14 km to the southeast of Baghdad opened fire on US military at around 1.30 p.m. Monday, killing two , injuring 4. U.S. military confirmed the report.

Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today; 1 in Hurriyah and one in al-Amin.

Diyala

Mortar rounds fell on a Sahwa headquarters in al-Atheim district, 50 km to the north of Baquba at 8.30 p.m. Sunday, killing 10 members, injuring 24 others.

Nineveh

Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint manned by Iraqi Police in New Mosul, south Mosul killing one policeman and one civilian female, severely injuring two civilians.

Sunday, June 22:

Baghdad

Police found three bodies throughout Baghdad. Two bodies were found in Fdheliyah and one body was found in Saidiyah.

Diyala

16 people including eight policemen were killed and 40 others were injured when a female suicide bomber blew herself up among policemen near Diyala governorate building in downtown Baquba city around 12:30 p.m.

Nineveh

14 people were injured including four policemen when a suicide car bomb attacked a police checkpoint in al Wihda neighborhood in downtown Mosul city on Sunday afternoon.

Kirkuk

Three civilians including two women were killed and two other civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded nearby a passing car on Rashad -Kirkuk Street southwest Kirkuk city north of Baghdad on Sunday morning.

Four civilians were killed in a roadside bomb that targeted their vehicle in Fashka village west of Kirkuk on Sunday morning

Saturday, June 20:

Baghdad

– Around 1 p.m. a bomb planted in the car of the office manager of the Iraqi minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research exploded in Al Tobchi neighborhood injuring three including the minister’s office manager.

– Around 4 p.m. a bomb planted in a civilian car exploded in Al Nidhal Street injuring two Iraqi employees of a local LG Company branch.

– Around 5 p.m. a bomb planted in a police vehicle exploded in Al Andalus square injuring two policemen.

– Police found two dead bodies throughout Baghdad; one in Al Baladiyat, one in Mansour.

Diyala

– Police found the bodies of two brothers, Ali and Mohamed Zaid, in Al Tahrir neighborhood in Baquba. The two brothers were members of the awakening council, a U.S. backed Sunni militia, and were kidnapped three days ago.

Kirkuk

– Around 8 a.m. a car exploded in central Kirkuk injuring the two passengers in the car. Police said they suspect the two passengers were planning a car bomb attack. The two suspects are under investigation, police said.

and on. and on. and on.  This, apparently, is what a Grand Ole Victory looks like.  Now Mayer is only an intern, so I don’t want to be too hard on him, but clearly this blog post is little more than the adoption of right-wing spin job.  Let’s hope his reporting gets better in the future.

Update: I’m getting overrun by freepers over at the original blog post, and I have to leave for a conference soon, so if anyone is willing to pick up the torch please do.  Also, if you can’t comment, please at least go to the site and give the original posting one star under “rate this post”; it appears to be one of the freepers favorites!