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Politics | 05/27/2009 3:05 pm

A Note on the 'News,' From Mr. wOw

Post-Memorial Day weekend, Mr. wOw has something he needs to get off his chest.
By Mr. wOw
Mr. wOw has had enough.

No, I’m not going complain about Bristol Palin’s astounding People magazine cover in graduation drag, holding her child, and proclaiming nobody would have sex if they “knew the consequences.” No comment. OK, put in a giggle. Sometimes the consequences are fun.

Look, the poor girl has to have her mother’s stalker, Greta Van Susteren, in her life, so let’s cut her a break. (Especially as Miss Van S. will likely be a member of President Palin’s cabinet in 2012. I don’t like it either, but smug Dems are assuring it – I mean you Madame Speaker!)

And I am not going to decry GQ’s takes on Christian Bale and Larry King. The Bale interviewer concentrates almost exclusively on the actor’s infamous caught-on-audio rant. And even when not probing that nonsense, the questions are of the type and tone that should make everybody sympathetic even to the rich and famous. As for the King piece, it’s a cutesy, we-are-not-seriously-ageist-but-really-we-are poke at his literal longevity (75 years) and his career longevity (75 years at least, it seems). I’m no fan of Mr. King. I simply cannot understand his popularity, but his age is never an issue. Mr. wOw is getting up there himself, even to the point of tugging on his neck, going, “Hmm … What was that doctor’s name?” 

Also, Larry King is father of two young children, ages nine and ten. How come nobody was up his kazoo about making babies in his sunset years like they did to that poor woman in England? Leave people’s reproductive matters alone – and that means you, men-who-cannot-get-pregnant-so-don’t-make-laws-about-women-who-do.

No, no … Mr. wOw’s Memorial Day weekend magazine browsing is not what has brought him back to you. Channel-surfing the "news," I heard over and over a phrase that has become a mantra for the Cheney-Bush administration: "We have not been attacked since 9/11!"

Look, I hate to break it to some people, but we were not the Middle East on 9/10. The United States of America, contrary to what you might come to believe, was not under attack every day. In fact, in fact, there have been three attacks from foreign powers on American soil in the last 100 years. Three.

Pearl Harbor, the first attack on the WTC in 1993 and then the horrors of 9/11 eight years later. (I’m not counting American embassies, ships or targets in other countries.)

Why is it so extraordinary – such a feat – that we have not been attacked again on our soil? We weren’t being bombed every couple of days or weeks or years. It took eight years to plan 9/11.

Are there no real reporters left who can ask these questions? Is the media a bunch of lazy jackasses, more interested in making noise and having personality than in making a point so simple even a showbiz simpleton like Mr. wOw can voice it? Is the so-called “liberal media” really still a little afraid of the so-called “defunct” Republican Party?

Yes they are. And I refer to the Repubs as “so-called defunct” because, despite the seemingly negative PR attached to Rush Limbaugh and other partisan entertainers, a major core – millions of people – remain socially conservative and open to any and all devices to undermine Obama. Don’t dismiss the South; it can rise again and bite the Dems in the ass when they are not looking.

But why expect journalists to ask the obvious and the serious? They are all too busy trying to decipher the meaning of Kate Goselin’s whacked-up hairdo.

162 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Slinky Binx
But why expect journalists to ask the obvious and the serious? They are all too busy trying to decipher the meaning of Kate Goselin’s whacked-up hairdo.

That, Mr. Wow, is IT in a nutshell. 

By Slinky Binx on 05/27/2009 3:28 pm
DeBúrca obj

Spot on mr. WOW! 3 attacks in 100 years (no including our home grown McVeigh) and Cheney acts as though we should have expected an attack a week since 9/11 and insists that THEY saved us from them! ( And people are shivering in their boots in a way that would have embarrassed our parents who lived through Pearl Harbor. Also, I don’t remember any color coded alerts and panic after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 either. Nope, the Clinton administration just caught the guys, tried them, prosecuted them and put them in our perfectly secure high-security prisons! But now there is a whole political industry formed around the terrified masses clinging to daddy-Bush/daddy-Cheney to save them! And if those masses get even a little bit brave, they have FOX to put the fear of attack into them!

And what about all those anthrax ‘attacks’ Cheney/Bush/torture and wiretapping didn’t save us from after 9/11? Nobody talks about that. Nobody remembers that. Nobody seems to care who was responsible either. Btw, where IS Osama Bin Laden anyway??

By DeBúrca obj on 05/27/2009 3:31 pm
C Hardy
DeB, what about the attacks on Americans in other Countries b/c they were Americans?
By C Hardy on 05/27/2009 7:27 pm
DeBúrca obj
What countries are you referring to?
By DeBúrca obj on 05/28/2009 12:27 am
canuck canuck
Your kidding about asking this right DeBurca?
By canuck canuck on 05/28/2009 1:01 am
C Hardy

Ok since you want to play dumb…Here DeB, and please before you say it, Mr WOW told us the attacks on US Soil, 3 in 100 years, and all I asked was what about the attacks on Americans not on US Soil…so here you go…

1979
Nov. 4, Tehran, Iran: Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. Fourteen were later released. The remaining 52 were freed after 444 days on the day of President Reagan’s inauguration.

1982–1991
Lebanon: Thirty US and other Western hostages kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Terry Anderson was held for 2,454 days.

1983
April 18, Beirut, Lebanon: U.S. embassy destroyed in suicide car-bomb attack; 63 dead, including 17 Americans. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Oct. 23, Beirut, Lebanon: Shiite suicide bombers exploded truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 Marines. Minutes later a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut.
Dec. 12, Kuwait City, Kuwait Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80.

1984
Sept. 20, east Beirut, Lebanon: truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. embassy annex, killing 24, including 2 U.S. military.
Dec. 3, Beirut, Lebanon: Kuwait Airways Flight 221, from Kuwait to Pakistan, hijacked and diverted to Tehran. Two Americans killed.

1985
April 12, Madrid, Spain: Bombing at restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers, killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82.
June 14, Beirut, Lebanon: TWA flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome hijacked to Beirut by Hezbollah terrorists and held for 17 days. A U.S. Navy diver executed.
1996
June 25, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. Thirteen Saudis and a Lebanese, all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001.

2000
Oct. 12, Aden, Yemen: U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole heavily damaged when a small boat loaded with explosives blew up alongside it. Seventeen sailors killed. Linked to Osama bin Laden, or members of al-Qaeda terrorist network.
2002
June 14, Karachi, Pakistan: bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12. Linked to al-Qaeda.

2003
May 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: suicide bombers killed 34, including eight Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners. Al-Qaeda suspected.



 

By C Hardy on 05/28/2009 6:48 am
S G
C I would like to answer your question from my point of veiw. You may disagree and thats fine but we are being attacked because we don’t keep our nose out of other peoples countries. We spend money to train and install opisition governments and when the dictators we install such as Saddam don’t want to play ball anymore ,we off them. If we spent more money on our own country and helping the poor nations of the world in the right way we wouldn’t be such a target.When Bush went into Iraq he made more enemies for us. When he tortured those young people and they were not terrorist he instilled a hatred of America. Truthfully can you imagine running into a house and seeing your family slaughtered to be dragged away and you had done nothing. Then taken to another country and detained with no rights,tortured. Who would you hate? We ( and I mean some of our leaders representing us) have installed some of the most haneous dictators. I hope you don’t mind me answering in my point of veiw:) DeBurca I hope you don’t mind either:)
By S G on 05/28/2009 7:51 am
C Hardy

SG, Thank you, I know why we are hated and I never question that…but what I question is why Mr. Wow only made comments about the attacks that happened on American soil, they happen to Americans all over the Country, DeB wanted to know where, so I told her, which I found kind of funny considering…

I agree that we are in Countries for the wrong reasons, should we have gone into Iraq, no, but we did. 

I would much rather hear from you then DeB anyway!

By C Hardy on 05/28/2009 8:08 am
S G
Thank You:) DeBurca is a smart gal too:) I appreciate your not minding my butting in:) Have a great day with your little one:) A tantrum free day:) LOL. I remember my children’s tantrums YIKES!
By S G on 05/28/2009 8:20 am
C. Aune
but what I question is why Mr. Wow only made comments about the attacks that happened on American soil

Umm, maybe because he was debunking direct quotes currently being used by Cheney et al saying America has not been attacked since 9/11 to prove their sorry azz point that Obama is making us less safe?????????

By C. Aune on 05/29/2009 9:35 am
DeBúrca obj
No I don’t mind you answering at all! I just didn’t see the relevance of those attacks to this thread and attacks ON OUR SOIL, nor how those last two attacks do anything BUT discredit The Bush administration even more. 
By DeBúrca obj on 05/28/2009 11:15 am
S G
Thanks:) I think C’s point was they were attacks on Americans. Like I say American leaders need to stop personal and financial agendas and anyone else be damned and start being responsible;)
By S G on 05/28/2009 11:32 am
DeBúrca obj

Yes but those attacks really aren’t relevant to what Cheney and the Bush administration have been telling people as far as keeping us safe. Cheney is implying that because we have not been attacked again like we were on 9/11 on our soil that it is because torture and wiretapping kept us safe. The point in Mr. Wow-here’s thing is that years have gone by between such things as Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center and 9/11 where we are not attacked on our soil and the fact that we haven’t been attacked on our soil since doesn’t prove Cheney’s point.

I most certainly agree that not being attacked on our soil doesn’t mean we are safer. Also, I DO wonder why when everyone talks about us not being attacked again since 9/11 they totally ignore the months of anthrax scares and the fact that nobody was caught or prosecuted for that either.

I agree with you that much of our past foreign policy (ie. the enemy of our enemy is our friend) is what has made Americans LESS safe around the world and even here at home when you consider the nuclear threat that was allowed to grow during the Bush administration pretty much without any attention because all of our attention was on Iraq an on a political agenda here at home. 

By DeBúrca obj on 05/28/2009 3:29 pm
C Hardy
Because they were attacks on Americans…just b/c we step off US Soil does not mean we are not Americans and those attacks should be taken lightly.  When I speak of attacks I speak of all of them that have happened to Americans, no matter where they took place. Some of them can discredit Bush and others are on Clinton…Once again let me say this, maybe you can get it, I am not a fan of Bushco, not sure why you can’t get that.
By C Hardy on 05/28/2009 3:49 pm
DeBúrca obj
C Hardy, THAT is what those of us who believe Bush/Cheney’s policies have NOT kept us safe have been saying ALL ALONG! That is why I don’t get your point. I’ve been saying that in here and I’ve been saying it all through the last 8 years of Bush. I was saying it when we were calling Saddam Hussein our enemy when I know it was OUR gov’t that armed him.
By DeBúrca obj on 05/28/2009 4:11 pm