World of Suck

One thing about driving is that it provides a terrific opportunity to mix with our peers. Getting in a car is a mixing, a blending of humanity that at once both exposes and reveals the best (but mostly the worst) of our fellow humans. What's more for some reason people believe that when they're driving around in their glass-topped box that they are more or less invisible, even if the fact is that they're essentially on display. At no time does the point that they can see out ever correlate with the point that others can see in.

I believe I'm observant. I'm cautious about what I do in a car because, yes I realize that I'm in public. Even if there isn't a pickup truck full of yahoo's leaning out their window gesturing and leering, I realize that the semi three lanes over can see right down to my knees, and the fact that there's no car alongside does not mean that the person in front of me isn't looking through their rear-view.

So the other day when I was cautiously watching the approach of the car behind me (I was stopped at a red light and I do like to assure myself that the vehicle behind me is aware of this) I was not just aghast at the actions of the driver, it almost made me choke.

He was a decently groomed fellow, probably between late 20's and early 30's. Nice shirt, jacket, haircut. As I'm watching he puts his hands to his face and blows his nose, complete with the little left-right hand wiggle. I figured he must have been palming a handkerchief or a tissue but no! Next he proceeds to lick the flats of his palms with gusto. Several times.

You know, I used to be mildly disgusted when I saw people hock up out their car window. Now the bar is just so, so much higher.

Condi Rice was up on Capital Hill yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. For the most part, she was presenting and defending El Presidente's plan for Iraq. Part of the Shrub's plan is to send twenty thousand more troops into Iraq to try to gain control of the situation. This thread isn't about the plan. It doesn't matter if it's the worst idea ever or the salvation of the world.

What drives me up the wall is the presentation of the plan.

You see, after giving her opening remarks, Rice had to field questions from the committee. One question in particular from Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) really struck a nerve. He asked if the additional troops would be seen as a further escalation of the conflict.

Rice tried to tap dance away from the question and call it an 'augmentation'. Let's call a spade a spade here. Increasing the troop commitment by over 10% is not tweaking the force. It's not a small change. Twenty thousand troops isn't a boy scout troop. It's a significant increase in force, required due to mounting casualties and violence in the region. You see, the other side stepped up it's game, and now we're trying to counter it. That is almost the very definition of an escalating conflict.

Don't cover it up, Madam Secretary. Don't distort the truth. Don't spin this shit. It's an escalation. Good or bad, that is what it is. Dancing around the semantics and trying to pass it off as an augmentation is disingenuous. Quite frankly, that is exactly why the voters (and the rest of the world) don't believe this administration when it talks anymore. Too much tap dancing. I'm sorry if the word conjures images of Vietnam to the American public, but escalation is a proper term for what the plan calls for.

Stand up and say what you fucking mean. Hagel was right to call you out on it. He was right when he mocked you on C-SPAN. You deserved it. It's reprehensible when leaders try to hide the truth of their actions with pretty words.

You know, I enjoy the internet. I can read it anytime of day and find out about just about anything at anytime. I enjoy getting my news on CNN or MSNBC all day long. In general I support doing just about anything 24 hours a day. All night diners, 24 hours supermarkets, the works.

However, I have a pet peeve. It's when the rush to provide something causes it to be done poorly or improperly.

Tonight's target? The Associated Press. A news story on an explosion.

Headline: 'Blast heard at U.S. Embassy in Athens'

Report:

ATHENS, Greece - Police cordoned off streets around the U.S. Embassy in Athens early Friday and state-run television, quoting witnesses, said there was an explosion inside.

That's it. Nothing else. Not even credit to an author that I can go bludgeon about the head with a baseball bat.

You see... that is not news. It's sentence. It's not even a very well written one. It's a tag line or an appetizer to actual news. Something to prepare you to hear more about the news. But in the rush to scoop a story, people put things like this up on the wire just so they can claim that they were the first on the scene.

I suppose there is some value to knowing that there was an explosion. But really, it's nothing more than a tease. Without expansion, it's not newsworthy IMO. Take 20 minutes, get some details, put together a 6 or 7 sentence story, and post that. Location, relative size, injury reports, police comment (even the expected 'no comment'). Give me something. Don't just type in the first thing you hear and press 'send'.

It's the difference between a news reporter and a glory hound.