Itz News to Me

This seems like an appropriate day to link to a Popular Mechanics article which completely and thoroughly debunks all the “truther” myths about how the attacks on 9/11/01 were some kind of government conspiracy.

If you are one of the people who: a) perpetuated these myths, or b) allowed them to go unchallenged: shame on you. You should have known better, and now you can’t claim you don’t.

Popularity: 18%

The New York Times has had enough 9/11. Today’s edition contains an article with complaint after complaint from locals who just wish the whole thing would go away. How fitting…and how politically convenient…

First, let’s dispense with the basic point: that six years is far too long to commemorate 9/11. Hey guys, ever heard of Pearl Harbor Day? It’s closing on 70 years later and it’s still on the calendar. So where’s the article about Pearl Harbor Day fatigue? Answer: you’ll never see one. Ever. Why? Because Democratic victories in upcoming elections don’t depend on people forgetting Pearl Harbor Day.

It’s a measure of just how far the NYT is willing to sink that they are resorting to this sort of propaganda. For that’s what this article is: an attempt to neutralize the Democratic weakness on national security issues by trying to erase 9/11 from the public consciousness. Nothing more and nothing less. Move along. There’s nothing to see here. So what if Democrats have a long history of weak-kneed appeasement of threats to this country, dictators and thugs both at home and abroad. There are no threats on the horizon to worry about, right? Right? 9/11? What 9/11?

Just another reminder of who’s side they’re really on….It’s not yours or mine or even this country’s. It’s all about naked political power. They want it, and they’re willing to do anything to achieve it. I don’t question their patriotism, because there’s no question that they have none.

UPDATE: Over at Classical Values, Eric has found an even more embarrassing divide between what the NY Times is and isn’t willing to commemorate: Princess Diana’s death. Hey guys: she wasn’t American, she wasn’t even in line for the British throne….She was just a foreign celebrity, but the NYT goes wall-to-wall for the anniversary of her death while the more recent deaths of nearly 3,000 of their neighbors is just “annoying.”

Popularity: 16%

To hear Democrats (and their media cohorts) talk about Iraq and Afghanistan, you’d think we’re getting our butts kicked. But evidently nobody gave Al-Qaeda the party talking points.

The guys at Powerline don’t have any special access to classified documents the way that the New York Times does. They’re just looking at publicly available documents, and they found yet another nugget in the treasure trove recovered from Zarqawi’s headquarters which any reporter interested in the real truth would (and should) have discovered long ago if they were interested in anything other than playing politics with the war.

It’s plainly evident from this letter that: a) our operations in Afghanistan are succeeding at tying down Al-Qaeda leadership, b) our operations in Iraq are succeeding in alienating Al-Qaeda from any popular support in Iraq, and c) the Democratic party is conspiring with its media allies to keep this information from the American public.

There is no way that reporters who have repeatedly put classified information on the front pages of newspapers and at the top of news broadcasts don’t have access to the same information that a couple of pretty regular Joes were able to dig up. But they won’t publish it because were it widely known then George Bush specifically and Republicans generally would be walking to a landslide victory in the upcoming elections.

Thank God the days of Democratic party operatives at the helms of major media corporations controlling the news cycle are coming to an end with the continuing rise of bloggers. For the last couple of decades, they decided what made the headlines and what Americans were told about the state of their country and the world at large. But the explosion of citizen media on the internet is changing that, and they couldn’t be more unhappy about it…

Popularity: 23%

Not surprisingly, in the midst of the recent upturn in violence between the terrorist group and Israel the media was all abuzz with the consensus thinking that Israel had blundered badly in its response to the kidnapping of its soldiers. Now that the smoke has cleared, it looks like the media and all its talking heads got it precisely backwards.

The truth is that no matter how Israel responded, it would have been criticized by the media. They tried to crucify Sharon over the wall, yet it has been amazingly effective at preventing terrorist acts inside Israel - and it’s not even completely finished yet. The international media is full of leftists and anti-Semites from the AP and Reuters to such “impartial” sources as Al-Jazeera. The default editiorial slant on every story is that Israel is wrong until it can be conclusively proved otherwise. Even the proof of Hezbollah playing them for stooges by utilizing people like “Green Helmet Man,” isn’t enough to shame them into playing a story straight…

Popularity: 12%

FoxNews is breaking the news right now that a possible hijack attempt occurred on a United Airlines flight from Heathrow to Dulles. It was diverted to Boston’s Logan Airport after a woman claiming claustrophobia caused a disturbance on the flight. Initial reports are saying that she might have had a screwdriver, Vasoline (petroleum jelly), matches, and a paper referencing Al-Qaeda on her.

The story is just breaking, so stay tuned for more…

UPDATE: The flight was intercepted and escorted to the airport by two F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base after a call from the pilot reporting a disturbance on the plane.

UPDATE: The TSA is saying there is “no link to terrorism.” According to an analyst, he is suggesting that the fact that passengers were deplaned using the stairway rather than via the emergency slides would tend to back this up.

UPDATE: Turns out it was a 60-year old woman who wigged out for one reason or another, but there is apparently no connection whatsoever to terrorism. The one good result of this is that the system worked the way it was supposed to: everyone followed procedures and those procedures seemed to deal with the situation quite effectively. Kudos to the flight crew, TSA, FBI and military for a job well coordinated and well done.

Popularity: 14%