Sorry for not posting anything in a month. I'll probably get something up soon.

9/11

I would like to say one quick thing on this day.

On this day five years ago, 3000 people lost their lives because of their belief that god demanded the deaths of those innocents. On that day, no matter who you believe responsible for the attacks, we saw evil. We saw murder on a larger scale than this country has seen in decades. And on the end of that day, the nation was not devided by partisianism, religion, or anyother things, we, and not just we, but most of the world, were all Americans on that day.

JonBenet Ramsey Coverage

(Note: I'm not going to continue the middle east crisis post.)

As people in the U.S. know, the media has been covering, for the past two weeks or so, the arrest of John Mark Karr, a man who confessed to the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. They have not only been covering it, they have been obsessively covering it. We know that he may have been seeking gender reassignment surgery, we know that he sat in buissness class on the plane ride to the U.S. while dining on champagne. We know that he will be tried on child porn charges instead of the Ramsey case because he was not at the crime scene.

While this may seem unimportant, after all, it has ceased to be in the media spotlight, it is important in that it shows how the media assigns importance to stories.

Take for example the Michal Jackson story, the media covered it to what can be argued to be a ridiculous degree. We knew that Michale Jackson arrived at the court house late one day wearing his pajamas. for instance.

These stories and others should raise important questions about the media. What is the role of Media in our culture. Is it currently used to provide for a more educated citizenry?

The media's focus on stories that have little or no news value is of concern as, traditionaly, the media's responisblilty to act as a watchdog agianst wrongdoing of all kind's. The diversion of time to stories such as celeberty scandals and other pieces of so called "infotainment"(news stories that are soft news), should be of concern as it diverts attention from important events and important stories that should be reported on.

What should the news media be reporting on? How about instead of say "Paula Zahn Now" on CNN, how about they instead have a show devoted to analysis of Global Hotspots, such as the Middle East. And how about instead of reporting about things that have little bearing on the public interest, how about they instead devote more time to stories that have bearing on the public interest.

I would say that if the media were to do this, this could allow for a better informed public that would be knowledable about their government and the world around them.

Note

I apologize for my absence, I've been out of town for the past two weeks, but I will finish the second part soon.

Middle East Crisis (Part 1)

For the past week, as you should know, Israel has effectivley been in a state of war with Lebanon. It started when Hezbollah fighters conducted a raid into Israel that catured two soldiers.

The Israeli response has so far included the bombing of numerous roads and bridges, the bombings of the Beirut International Airport, the only such in the country, on the belief that it would be used to smuggle the two soldiers out of Lebanon and into Iran, bombings in other areas throughout the capitlal causing, according to Bloomberg, 250 people to be killed with 500 or 600 wounded, attacks damaging some of the major ports in Lebanon, and a naval blockade of Lebanon, and as of this writting, Israeli forces have entered Lebanon. So far the Hezbollah response has included missle and rocket attacks on targets in Israel, with deliberately targeting civilians and an attack on an Israeli naval vessel by a Kamakazi UAV.

So far, most of the fighting has been limited to air raids by the Israeli's and rocket attacks by Hezbollah. However, there is the possibility of further escalation into a wider war.

First, a little history of Hezbollah. Hezbollah was formed, depending on who you listen to was formed as early as 1982 or as late as 1985. It is a collective group of Shia extreamist groups, Islamic Jihad, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, and the Revolutionary Justice Organization, that merged to Hezbollah and are now considered to be the same as Hezbollah by the U.S., Israel, and Canada.

The organization, like Hamas, has a political and military wing with the politcal wing being a political party in Lebanon with 23 seats. The military wing is much more infamous. Hezbollah has been acused by the U.S. government of being behind multiple terrorist operations, including the 1983 marine barracks bombing, with assistance from Iran, the kidnapping of multiple westerners, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, and numerous other bombings. They also control a world wide satilite T.V. network.

Currently, Hezbollah is regarded as legitimet in the Arab world due to the fact that their resistance during the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon is the only time that Arab armies have forced Israel to give up. In Lebanon, they are popular because of their civil services in a nation that lacked even a basic government and there temporary relinquishment of the goal of establishing a Shi'ite theocracy in Lebanon, which made them palatable to Christians and Sunnis. Also, some Western governments have ackowledged Hezbollah's civil service.

It's sponsers are Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. They are considered to be in violation of two UN resolutions, UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1373 and UNSC resolution 1559, by those who consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Hezbollah it's self is in violation of UNSC resolution 1559 which calls for the dismantlement of militas such as Hezbollah's military wing.

One of the largest problems in this conflict is that Hezbollah is one of the best terrorist organizations on Earth. They have a world wide terrorist network and operation, including cases of Hezbollah members in the U.S.

Ali Boumelhem was a member of Hezbollah who was a U.S. citizen and a convicted felon, who was found to be suppling Hezbollah with weapons. The fact that he was a felon made him ineligable to own weapons.

The Liberals Statement of Principals

Before starting, let me say a few things. I intend to have a statement of principals to inform people about what to expect and since I want to base some things off the newspaper. Also, if anyone wants to do anything using the address for this blog, I've misspelled the address so I could have a somewhat similar name to "The Liberal", the address is "theliberel.blogspot.com". Anyways, onto the actual post.


This is to insure that people understand what to expect from this blog.

1. This blog will feature primarily opinion based on my interpretation of the information available. As can be told from the title, said opinions will primarily come from a liberal perspective.
2. This blog will not alter facts to support specific view points. This is primarily to let people know that the articles will lack tactics such as quote mining, cherry picking, anything that misrepresents the otherside or facts in anyway.
3. Information that is known to be false by me will not be placed on this blog. However, there may be information that is false but I don't it is false. If someone knows that something that I have wrote is false, please inform me and I will fix it as soon as possible.
4. All comments will be accepted on this blog as it is necessary for any discourse to allow for the widest amount of view points as possible. I will not tolerate however ad hominem attacks unless said ad hominem attacks can be proven or are against public officials. However, said attacks can not be based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. Unless they can be proven.
5. As I do not have an absolute mastery of the English language, expect some misspelled words and some punctuating errors. I would appreciate notification of any grammar or spelling errors that are found in my posts.
6. This blog will sometimes contain items for entertainment. That does not mean celebrity gossip or anything dealing with the personal lives of celebrities.

That conclude the statement of principles, stay tuned for an update. So, until next time, good night and good luck.