Daily Archives: August 18, 2003

Taking Out Journalists

This entry was posted in Iraq on by

Taking out the Journalists
It is dangerous in Iraq and mistakes are made:

Reuters news agency is calling for a “comprehensive investigation” after one of its award-winning cameramen was shot and killed by U.S. troops near Baghdad.
Coalition officials say soldiers mistook Mazen Dana’s camera for a shoulder-launched weapon and have described the incident as a “tragic mistake.”
The shooting took place in daylight Sunday afternoon outside the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, scene of an attack Saturday night that killed six Iraqis and wounded nearly 60 others.
U.S. military officials say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“They thought he was aiming an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) at them and they engaged him,” a senior Pentagon official told CNN.

We do not know the exact context so it would be wrong to jump to final conclusions but a TV Camera does look a bit different then a rocket propelled grenade launcher.
NB: I’ll bet a few folks would get excited if they got the model with the launcher in their sites.
Update: 8/19 Please go to Body and Soul where Jeanne has has more details on this killing. Via Talkleft.
Update (8/19): A commentor provides this link which provides a much different perspective on the differences between a TV Camera and an RPG. The ones shown do look more like cameras then the one SH is holding in picture I link to above.

GOP may Support Dem in California

This entry was posted in California on by

Seems the grand old party wants the second tier candidates to pull out* of the contest:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon (search), under considerable pressure by the party to withdraw from the recall election and endorse front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger (search), wouldn’t rule out that option on Sunday.

It is hard to tell just where Arnold fits in. He has named both a democrat and a republican as top advisors and at least one of his democratic opponents (a minor one) calls him a Bush republican:

With President Bush arriving in California for a two-day visit, Huffington branded Schwarzenegger a “Bush Republican through and through.”

The further right you go the more he is considered if not a democrat at best a moderate republican.
Maybe the fact the he is getting hit from both sides suggests that for him the labels are not very meaningful and that he is a centrist with some outlier positions. At least he does not need to use his potential governorship to get wealthy.

Agenda Whores (r rated: Language)

This entry was posted in Journalism on by

They could habitate any field, e.g., physics, psychology, horse racing, etc., but the politcal ones are easiest to find and study. This piece at meet the g focuses on the species on the political right:

An old social psychology teacher of mine, Professor Alabaster V. Entenswop, used to wax lyrical about his pet hate, Agenda Fuckers � he changed the term to Agenda Whores just before his death by food choking. What�s an Agenda Whore? His definition, cribbed from his red lecture series:

�An agenda fucker. He, or it could be a She these days. They or It decide to center their life and work upon a single political, social or psychological event. They do this without any type of humour or irony, they can change their agenda at a whim

You go read the rest.
Via Ruminate This.