Baghdad was relatively quiet on Thursday until nightfall, when a car bomb exploded in the Karada neighborhood as an American convoy passed, an Interior Ministry official said. A second bomb exploded in that neighborhood just after midnight.
The American military also announced Thursday that a marine had died in combat on Wednesday in western Iraq.
The ministry also reported that 20 bodies had been found around the city, and that two people had been killed by mortar fire.
Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 20 people were killed or found dead. Among them were five Iraqi Army soldiers and four police officers.
That's from Alissa J. Rubin's "A Tough Fight Still Looms, Cheney Warns G.I.’s in Iraq" in this morning's New York Times and about all that's worth noting. There's an 'interesting' fact-toid in the article that bears a Rita Katz like signature even though it's not credited as such. Rubin also (as does every outlet I've seen this morning) repeats Cheney's false claim that the illegal war in Iraq results from 9-11.
Lloyd noted Joshua Partlow's "Iraqi Lawmakers Back Bill on U.S. Withdrawal" (Washington Post):
On his second day in Iraq, Cheney spoke to U.S. soldiers at a base near Tikrit about the difficulties they face each day. "We are here, above all, because the terrorists who have declared war on America and other free nations have made Iraq the central front in that war," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks. He added: "The United States, also, has made a decision: As the prime target of a global war against terror, we will stay on the offensive. We will not sit back and wait to be hit again."
The US is not in Iraq because of "terrrorists". Dick Cheney's a fat liar. Emphasis on fat. When you have a heart condition -- and he's got several -- you're not supposed to pig out but he's pigged out so much that even the Bully Boy -- who was once in awe of him -- is making fat jokes about Cheney. (Bully Boy loathes overweight people -- one of the reasons we have always noted -- and laughed at -- his own flucuating weight here.)
Tub of girth can tell those lies in Iraq because they're told in training. But this and his extended deployment remarks did not go over well. Yesterday, we covered the chewing out some got for not cheering like good Nazis as Cheney lied repeatedly. But we'll note: No link between Iraq and 9-11. All this time later, it's shocking that the lie still has to be called out. It's not shocking Cheney continues to return to the lie but it is shocking that when he does media outlets do not make it the headline and call it out. Considering that almost all mainstream media participated in spreading that lie in the lead up to the illegal war, it really is incumbent on all to call it out. No need for a lot of self-important journalists to say in a few months time, "I don't know why some in the American public still believe that lie." The reason is right there in print in paper after paper this morning. Tubby lied and everyone took it down, it showed up in print and wasn't called out.
That's why no one should speak of the press having learned a damn thing except to keep their heads down. There is still no effort to call out the LIE. Even something as simple as a sentence hiding behind official-dom is too much for the press: "The 9-11 Commission found no link between Iraq and 9-11. Despite that, Cheney continued to push a link."
There is no link. Allowing him to lie, repeating the lie, without calling it out demonstrates that nothing has changed in the press. Mini-culpas were meaningless. There was no examination process and the press remains unwilling to call out Cheney when he continues to repeat a lie discredited many times over.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
alissa j. rubin
the washington post
joshua partlow
