Gina writes from Seattle

Oh these tv “news”people kill me!! After almost non-stop “reporting” on the Jon Benet suspect, now they are doing a turnaround since dna tests came out….

Oh, you just have to wonder what was the DA and the police thinking? I tell you, the real losers here are the taxpayers of Boulder who underwrote this whole process….”

Little do they realise the real losers are the massive collective brain cell loss on a national level from the constant bombardment of you shameless nitwits going on with your groundless speculations..

Time for a mojito….

Joanne Giza writes about T-Shirts from Oh Canada:

” I heard Raed Jarrar talking with Amy Goodman a while back, about the T-shirt incident. Now it’s illegal or at the very least, unacceptable to wear a T-shirt with NON-ENGLISH script on it??? How do these government inspectors even KNOW what ’script’ they are reading??? Can they tell Urdu from Farsi from Arabic??? Because on the face of it, Westerners not educated in reading cursive script cannot possibly pretend to know what they are reading. These shirts could say anything - and these under-educated people would never know. So why assume they say something inflamatory?

There’s many reasons why: the first is that obviously anyone of Arab/Muslim descent is a terrorist, so what else would they possibly communicate. And the reason they would do that is because they are of Arab/Muslim descent, which automatically makes them God’s Stupidest Creatures. And why are they some of God’s Stupidest Creatures? Because Arabs/Muslims hold a world view which is diametrically opposed to that held by the children of the imperialist nations who have been ruining the world for centuries, in the name of their own glory. A truce must be declared - but it’s a two way street. Israel must declare in as much good faith as Palestine.

Michael Eisenmenger writes on a media list:

Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy.

“Gore lashes out at media consolidation

“Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy. Gore said the goal behind his year-old “interactive” television channel Current TV was to encourage the kind of democratic dialogue that thrives online but is increasingly rare on TV”.

”Well Gore should know, if not for his active participation in the passage of the ‘96 Telecom Act, today we wouldn¹t have so many fine democratic media models like Clear Channel. Instead of issuing warnings, he should issue an apology.”

Daniel Feder writes from Mexico:

”The repressive response of Oaxaca’s government to the popular uprising against its corrupt rule has become more and more violent. Last week, State Attorney General Lizbeth Caña Cadeza made a statement to the press in which she called the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) - a nonviolent movement made up of teachers, families, doctors, farmers and thousands of ordinary Oaxacan citizens - an “urban guerrilla group.”

ON ISRAEL

Jackie Newberry writes from Texas:

“I’m watching this on C-Span. It is fantastic. These guys (Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, co-authors, “The Israel Lobby: addressed the elephant in the room in their article. There was all kind of uproar and disinformation about what they wrote. Basically, our policies toward Israel, unconditional financial and military support has not been good for the US or Israel. Needs to be changed, but people who try to change come up against powerful AIPAC…more so in this administration.

FYI: Dana Milbank offers a more skeptical view in the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801178.html?referrer=email

ON IRAQ

Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardner writes:

It is probably because Karen Hughes likes my positions on issues, but one of the recent strange developments has been that I appear fairly regularly in Alhurra TV (USG alternative to Al Jazerra).

Yesterday I was on with the Iraq’s Deputy Minister of the Interior. The Minister is an al Sadr guy; my assumption is the deputy is also. This guy’s message was that everything is fine. There could never be a civil war. The new security arrangements are working great. There is not such thing as the Battle for Baghdad. The Prime Minister has been on CNN earlier in the day saying the same thing.

“In the middle of my suggestions of caution, particularly because yesterday was a rather bloody day, I was hit with this flash insight. These guys are in the process of spinning the Coalition out of Iraq. I can’t think of any reason they would want t make the situation rosier than it is other than they want their story to be the basis for our getting out. If it’s fine, there is no reason to stay.

“On Friday, they even played with numbers. The Green Zone said attacks were down 20% in Baghdad. The Minister of Interior released numbers that said they were down 30%.

Wow!”

ON PLUTO

Wendi Meremark writes from Oregon:

This lost week-end forgot Pluto dropped out of Empire Earth’s supporting cast. It only concerns some astrologers, as a practical matter. Remnants of 1980 Reagan-Bush administration still conned in thoughts that Nostradamus (1555) foretold themselves as historical figments, as Hitler also thought of himself, take note: No more Pluto, ruler of Hades and horrors of the Underworld. Worshippers there have lost their pantheistic patron. Now if we could only get Daylight Savings Time repealed — it is a nightmare.

In my own astrology practice, I judged Pluto a non-planet twenty years ago, and dropped it. No great loss. On the topic, Danny, perhaps there is to share m forecast for October 25, 2006. A touch of astrology might make your blog, my morning newspaper, read the same as all other newspapers which print it. 10/25/06: Nine Eleven Op, the Sequel. Looks to me like the ‘other shoe’ drops then. And could postpone elections.

So far I’m 3 for 3, forecasting 9/11 on 9/10, 8/24/05 Katrina on 8/10/05, and 7/17/06 Israel invasion on 4/17/06. Coming Friday, 8/31/06, is the harvest of 1989’s sown seeds — watch for 1989 references then. And then there is 10/25. Any other astrologers out there, come into the daylight and share what we see. The moving hand writes …”

REAL NEWS SEEKS TV NEWS PRESENTERS

”The Real News will be a non-profit world news service available on TV and the Internet. Our focus is uncompromising journalism, with no corporate or government funding and no commercial advertising.”

Write: bronwen@therealnews.com

EVEN BIG DOGS NAP

”Former President Clinton couldn’t make it to the ninth inning of a baseball game, nodding off. Even the noise at Shea Stadium couldn’t keep him awake.

Click to watch: http://e.ccialerts.com/a/t

CARLY CONFESSES

Looks like *Carly Simon* was fibbing with her hit “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain.”

The pop legend admits she gets spanked backstage before performances because only physical pain can overcome her stage fright.

“At a celebration for President *Bill Clinton*’s 50th birthday, at Radio City Music Hall, in 1996, Simon, terrified of following* Smokey Robinson*, invited the entire horn section to let her have it,” writes *John Lahr* in the New Yorker. “‘They all took turns spanking me,’she says. ‘During the spank the curtain went up.’

http://www.nydailynews.com

That’s it for now. Your comments and support are welcome. Write: dissector@mediachannel