Playing for Keeps in the Mainstream Media

How highly unusual it is that I would be sitting here writing an article in praise of something that came out of the mouth of Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing talker with “talent on loan from GOD,” according to his own advertisement. Right-wing radio has gotten a lot more entertaining ever since Obama took office – the cogs in the vast echo chamber are squirming and flopping about like fish out of water – and I can’t get enough of it.

Digital Transition Mania and Demographics

The President urged congress to postpone the digital TV transition, again. I understand the President has more important things to do right now, like fixing everything the last administration broke during the last 8 years, but the main argument against the transition appears to be that 6.5 million people will not be prepared at all for the transition.

This number surprises me considering it came from the Neilsen Company, in my opinion, the largest most powerful marketing entity in the world of television. Neilsen collects information and makes guides that tell advertisers which area will be most effective for their ads to control buying habits of a “target audience”, namely women 18-24,

Role Play

Apart from the dead, 5,300 Palestinians were wounded during the Israeli campaign. Many of the 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip have seen their homes and other property blown to pieces.

“We want a solution that would guarantee Israeli tanks will not return to kill us,” said Yehya Aziz, 28. “They said a ceasefire for a week. I don’t feel good, I doubt it is over.”

Israeli soldiers have been withdrawing from Gaza, leaving scenes of devastation and what Palestinians see as desecration.

Graffiti scrawled inside a mosque in the battered Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City read “Hamas whores” in Hebrew and “Hamas is dead” in English. Discarded military rations littered the floor. A shell hole gaped in one wall. (Source)

Suppose Israel were a small coastal strip approximately 4-5 miles long. Suppose a radical Arab nationalist state called Palestine whose area was approximately 21,000 square kilometers bordered it on three sides. Suppose this fictitious Palestine tightly controlled the border of Israel.

A Counter-Example for Shameless Media Bias

Check out fair.org for more.

‘If the Germans Had Won the War’
01/14/2009 by Gabriel Voiles
Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery provides (Progressive, 1/11/09) the following “description that would now appear in the history books–if the Germans had won the war”:

The Unlimited Rights of the Holy States

Israeli forces shelled areas deep inside Gaza City on Thursday, hitting the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and injuring at least three people among the hundreds taking shelter in the compound, according to United Nations officials and witnesses.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel expressed regret for the strike but said that Israeli forces were fired on by Hamas militants from just outside the United Nations compound and then ran inside to take cover, according to Mr. Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev. “It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place,” Mr. Olmert said in broadcast remarks, according to Reuters. (Source)

So if Gazans, inside Gaza, attack Israelis who are illegally invading their country and slaughtering civilians by the thousands, the Israeli’s claim the right to destroy any and all buildings from which the resistance is launched, even if it’s a U.N. compound where innocent Gazans are taking refuge and where international aid workers are attempting to help the thousands of victims.

Increasing the Threat of Terror and Violence in the World – Israel’s Campaign of Terror

Suppose you switched the words Gaza/Gaza Strip/Palestinian and Israel/Israeli around in the following passage:

The head of the United Nations children’s agency says 300 children have been killed during Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip.

UNICEF director, Ann Venemen, says more than 1,500 other children have been wounded, casualties she calls “tragic” and “unacceptable.”

Separately, Palestinian medics say more than 1,000 people have been killed during the 19-day offensive. (Source)

Solidarity with Gaza