I always knew it, but it's refreshing to see in action the fact that class, as well as freedom, transcends cultures, creeds, and geography.

Those guys over there are going to break Haloscan

I am hopeful that this has been posted before,but just in case---
The link below leads to a video of an Iraqi Election Ad.Powerful stuff,but you will likely NEVER see the MSM show it.No-one gets blown up'real good',and it sends the wrong message for their defeatist tastes.
Take a look.

http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=453

MSM Delenda Est

Wow. That ad made me cry. Let's spread it all over the blogosphere, and the MSM can go fuck itself.

Yehudit,

See the ad I linked in the post above this one. It's better (I think). No offense, Dougie. :)

“...to the shockingly unprofessional hit piece in the New York Times”

Unprofessional hit piece? The New York Times definitely has a credibility problem. No longer can its editors pretend that only the “Radical Right” finds fault with its brand of journalism. The big change, in just the last few years, is how those like Michael Totten mistrust them. If I owned stock in the NYT---I would sell it as fast as possible.

As it turns out, my blog -- Iraqi Bloggers Central -- was the first blog that Ms. Boxer found. My sidebar offered the 28 Iraqi blogs she referred to in her article.

I was traveling when the article came out, so I've been a little delinquent in my response.

If Sarah Boxer Were a Blogger ....

Check it out. Tell me what you think.

*

Good post, Jeffrey. You're absolutely right.

I don't understand why this is a hit piece? The complaint seems to be that it is about gossip rather than the issue of Iraqis supporting America? Is that it? Or are there other lies/distortions? I mean, this is in the Art section, which tends to lean towards fluff/gossip in most publications, not just the NYT. I would hate for Ali to turn down an interview with an actual news reporter there because of this.

Thanks, Michael.

Hey, guess what? I was born and raised in Iowa. In fact, in the town of Dyersville, where the Kevin Costner pic "Fields of Dreams" was filmed. That farmhouse is real. My Aunt Mildred, who just passed away last year, was a one-room schoolhouse teacher back in the 20s not far from that farm and on days of heavy snow she would stay at THAT farmhouse overnight. You can imagine her surprise when around 70 years later she watches the film.

That baseball diamond is still up and people come from all around the country and different nations to run the bases there.

Anyway, I did my undergraduate degree in Iowa City, where you studied too, I believe.

You do recall the Deadwood, I hope. Or George's? Or Dave's Foxhead? All fine establishments.

*

Jeffrey,

Those are all fine establishments. Iowa City is small, but I miss it all the same. I like the gruff raw bohemianism of the Foxhead. Portland is a great place, but it's a little too precious sometimes.

Michael,

"Raw bohemianism" is accurate. Hey, did you ever read Frank Conroy's masterful little essay called "Running the Table"? In the last section he offers the reader a glimpse of an evening of shooting pool at Dave's Foxhead. When you read it, I guarantee that you will nod and grin.

I first read it in one of those Best American Essays collections, but I think the essay has been included in his latest, "Dogs Bark."

*

If the NYTimes doesn't print Ali's response on their letters page, I'm going to boycott the NY Times on principle for the rest of my life.

I'm this close to boycotting most newspapers for sanitizing terrorists down to "militants" and "activists".

Refering to terrorists in Iraq as "insurgents" isn't quite as bad, though I wonder if a generation will grow up thinking that planting bombs in civilian areas to oppress their own is something soldiers do, since the media refuse to make moral distinctions between terrorists and soldiers.

I wonder if a generation will grow up thinking that planting bombs in civilian areas to oppress their own is something soldiers do,

Well, yes, it is and has been for a long, long time.

Kimmit, have I mentioned lately just how much you can FOAD? I wonder if you'd have the brass to say that to a servicemember's face?

Kimmitt, soldiers don't plant bombs to oppress their own except during civil wars.

Usually when they plant minefields, cluster bombs that don't explode right away etc in 'civilian areas', it's to oppress the enemy.

There's a big difference. The US military doesn't plant bombs in Cleveland, or even in Watts. The iranian military doesn't plant bombs in Teheran. And when they do plant bombs they don't want their own civilians to get blown up. They want to blow up somebody else -- enemy soldiers or enemy civilians.

Even insurgents don't want to oppress their own. They want to blow up collaborators.

Even terrorists don't want to oppress their own. They want to blow up their enemies.

Not even gangsters want to blow up their own.

We're all on the same side on this one. Nobody wants to kill their friends. They all want to kill their enemies instead.

I wonder if a generation will grow up thinking that planting bombs in civilian areas to oppress their own is something soldiers do,

Well, yes, it is and has been for a long, long time.

-Kimmitt

Of course your attitude won't really answer my question until you finish growing up.

I wonder if you'd have the brass to say that to a servicemember's face?

WTF? Who said it was American soldiers we were talking about? Soldiers of all stripes have been part and parcel of oppressing their citizens for as long as there have been soldiers working for oppressive regimes. What do you think the Republican Guard did for a living, knit?