The I. Lewis Libby Trial Begins this week. Follow Mediachannel’s Rory O’Connor’s live blogging from the courtroom.

IS THE ECONOMY DOING SO GREAT?
SURGE SHIPS SAIL
COMMENTS ON THE MEDIA AND THE MARCH

New slogan from an advertisement supplement in the New York Times for The New York Times:

IT’S ABOUT THE JOURNALISM. PERIOD.

On Friday, back in the back of the NY Times Biz section, a story about a stock market drop blamed on the Housing crunch included a line at the bottom of the story reporting that Wall Street ignored and was “unmoved” by a dramatic rise in workers filing for unemployment. This bit of information was, as we say, “buried.”

That was Friday.

On Sunday, the Week In Review returned to the economy to mock the Democrats as, in effect, out of touch. Here’s the lead:

NYT: Looking for the Angry Populists in Suburbia
By DAVID LEONHARDT

In his confrontational response to President Bush’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia said that he was going to focus on only two topics. One, as everyone knew it would be, was Iraq.

But before he turned to the war, the new senator spoke about something else: an economy that he said made it seem “as if we are living in two different countries.” In one, stock prices, corporate profits and executive pay are rising. In the other, the middle class is barely scraping by.

Mr. Webb said the situation was reminiscent of the early 20th century, when robber barons were raking in wealth and “dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.”

It was the sort of speech that one might have expected during a deep economic slump. Yet it came instead as most workers have started receiving significant pay increases for the first time in years and as polls show that most Americans think the economy has grown stronger.

This is so insulting not just to Webb but to all the working class and middle class families struggling with growing debt, threats of foreclosures, and unemployment.

The phrase I liked is this: “polls show that most Americans think the economy has grown stronger.” Right. And where do “most Americans get their information with which to form opinions that they then share with pollsters? From the media, of course. Garbage in, garbage out.

And, alas, like the NY Times, most media outlets and their advertisers want to bolster consumer confidence and keep readers spending and shopping. Just because people believe something doesn’t make it true. Most Americans believed there were WMDs in Iraq etc. Most Americans were wrong because they relied on politicians and media outlets that assured them that lies were the truth.

Jim Webb spoke for millions of Americans. Who is the NY Times speaking for? And PS: the LA Times on Saturday ran a video on the Senate Banking Committee hearings on credit cards that was played down.. Bob Manning and Liz Warren were shown. Warren told the Senators that 69 BILLION was spent last year on late fees and interest by consumers.

Meanwhile the Center for Economic and Social Research reported a drop in union membership:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1019&Itemid=138

For the first time in U.S. history, union membership rates were lower in manufacturing than in the rest of the economy.

BLOW OUT IN BOOMING BRITAIN?

Item Club hails Britain’s buoyant economy but warns that heavy borrowing and ‘lax lending’ policies could provoke a financial crisis

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1994947,00.html

IS GWB A “LUNATIC?”
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=821&Itemid=81

BIG BATTLE IN IRAQ—WE WON OF COURSE

CNN: Iraqi and U.S. forces killed more than 250 insurgents in fierce battles over control of the Shiite holy city of Najaf today, an interior ministry official tells CNN. The official said hundreds of gunmen attacked with the aim of killing Shia clerics including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The U.S. military helicopter went down north of the city, killing two soldiers.

AlJazeera reports:

Assad Abu Gilel, the governor of Najaf province, said US and Iraqi troops fought a day-long battle with up to 1000 fighters, including foreign fighters, holed up in orchards on the northern outskirts of the city.

According to one Iraqi political source, hundreds of fighters drawn from both Sunni and Shia communities were still fighting. A Reuters reporter at the scene, 160km south of Baghdad, saw US tanks and heard blasts after dark and an Iraqi officer said F-16 jets were bombing the area.

Details of the day’s fighting were sketchy. An Iraqi army source said some of the dead wore headbands declaring themselves a “Soldier of Heaven”

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55ABE840-AC30-41D2-BDC9-06BBE2A36665.htm

How America’s Conflict with Iran Will Begin
Translated By Mutasem Sinnokrot

“The first open signs of an American collision with Iran will occur in Iraq, after= the liquidation of the major [Shiite] militias and paramilitaries allied with them.”

http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/153/2/

NYTIMES TODAY: “Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad outlined a plan to expand its economic and military ties with Iraq that will almost certainly bring more conflict with the U.S.”

MORE WAR SHIPS TO GULF–GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY

Darth Cheney says:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf the United States has sent a “strong signal” that it is in the region to stay and working with allies to deal with an Iranian threat, Vice President Dick Cheney said.

Sam Gardiner reports:

”Yesterday, the USS Reagan aircraft carrier, a cruiser and a destroyer sailed from San Diego. It was announced as a “surge” deployment. We’ve known for quite a while that the Western Pacific carrier, the Japan-based Kitty Hawk, was going to be down for maintenance. The Stennis, now heading for the Gulf had been meant to stand in for the Kitty Hawk.

Translation is that Reagan is replacing the Stennis.

What does come from this, however, is a question. This is the first real use of the Navy’s carrier surge plan (The Fleet Response Plan) since it was written four years ago. Why did all of this take place so fast?

See former Air Force Colonel Gardiner’s piece on Mediachannel on “outrage operations”

MORE ON MILITARY FRAUD

http://www.baynews9.com/content/9/2007/1/28/218897.html?title=Army%20Probes%20War%20Contractor%20Fraud

ON ISRAELS USE OF US SUPPLIED CLUSTER BOMBS

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/27/usa.israel.reut/index.html

ARIANNA VS MCCAIN AT DAVOS

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/davos-notes-john-
mccain-_b_39788.html?view=print

Firoze Manji at the World Social Forum
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/39464