Over the last several days there have been many heated discussions on the FISA bill that's coming up for a vote this Wednesday (tomorrow) in the Senate. Most of the discussions have revolved around Senator Obama and his expressed support for the highly controversial bill. Many are looking to Obama as a Constitutional scholar, a consensus builder, and the de facto leader of his party to stand up for the rule of law and rally his party against this bill. The majority of posters in my view are simply outraged that the man they've been supporting, volunteering for, and contributing to is not living up to their expectations. And it seems fair to say that those expectations are not the ideals of the "starry-eyed but sadly naive purist" but rather the very rule of law, the foundation of order within our country, and the contract between our people and our government that vests the government with rank and authority in exchange for the simple protection of our liberties as elaborated in our founding documents.

Study finds strong correlation between IQ and the TV shows a person finds enjoyable!

And many of the shows enjoyed by high IQ individuals have a distinctly liberal tilt to them.

Study finds strong correlation between IQ and the TV shows a person finds enjoyable!

And many of the shows enjoyed by high IQ individuals have a distinctly liberal tilt to them.

19 years ago today, after millions of students and citizens converged at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, in peaceful demonstration to pursue an end of government corruption and freedom of expression, a government-enforced martial law and slayings of unarmed civilians of all ages followed starting on the night of the 4th of June in 1989.

The next morning on the 5th, after several attempts by the protesters to continue their demonstration against the Chinese government, all of which were violently quashed by the military leaving scores dead and wounded, a lone man walked before the lead tank among a moving line of over a dozen others; and he stunned onlookers with this scene:

After 19 years, this lone man's identity remains unknown.

His act of defiance then, staring down the overwhelming hardware of a system that employed tyrannical rule, public execution, and the slaying of unarmed protesters, remains a core image to all of those whom wish to see a freer world for themselves and others.

I don't think I am.  I stand by the view that the poor and getting poorer education that our children are getting is responsible for the elections of, in particular, such obviously unqualified (and proudly so) candidates such as the current president and the Reagan that has caused so many to become mistily reverential.  I adhere as well to the view that the failures of the modern press and broadcast media have made a bad situation worse.

But then, in rapid succession,there are three signs that things could be getting better, though very slowly

Work lasted into the late evening last night.  After a nap I got up and watched the second part of Frontline's Bush's War series on streaming video from the WGBH website.  [What a nice site that is.]

It was informative, seemed well supported, and is well made too.

So with that in mind, and with the official totals over 4,000 dead now and some 30,000 wounded just on the US side, I'd like to take a look at what I saw as shortcomings in the documentary.  Let's jump.

 Monday, PBS FRONTLINE ran part 1 of Bush's War. It was an exhaustive, exhausting look at how Bush presided over Cheney and Rumsfeld's determined push to go from 911 and the war in Afghanistan into an unwarranted invasion of Iraq. With interviews, video clips, documents and more, Part 1 revealed how America's government was subverted by powerful men with no conscience or compunction, how the U.S. became a state that made torture an official policy, rewrote the laws to make the President answerable to no one, and lied the country into attacking Iraq in a war of choice. It detailed the rush to war, and the overpowering arrogance and hubris of the Bush administration. A diary yesterday captured responses to Part 1.

  Part 2 detailed what happened after Bush and company accomplished their mission, the chaos, the incompetence, and the total lack of accountability.  (more)

    In case you missed it, last night FRONTLINE on PBS spent 2+ hours laying out how Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. took 911 and turned it into America's biggest foreign policy blunder. The lies, the horribly wrong choices, the misjudgments, the obsessions, the evil: it's all laid out in detail. Anyone who still thinks going into Iraq was a good idea needs to be forced to watch this. Repeatedly. Bush's War can be watched on line; a copy should be placed in every library and video rental shop in America.

    The are other good FRONTLINE shows worth watching, but Bill Moyers Journal has what makes an excellent companion piece to Bush's War: Buying the War. It demonstrates how the press largely failed to do its job and turned into credulous cheerleaders for the Bush administration.

 For those of you who watched the show last night, why not use this diary to leave comments? I have to head off to work about now, so post away. Catch you later.

I'm only part way through the first half of Frontline's latest shining achievement, Bush's War.

I haven't seen one diary on the recommended list yet that's pimping this doc, and it needs to be, but I do take serious issue with Frontline's choice of title. It is not Bush's war. It's our war. He thrust it into our arms like an unwanted Christmas present, only instead of a sweater, it was 4,000 dead soldiers, half a million dead civilians, more chaos in the middle east, and about $9 trillion in debt. Oh, and he lost the receipt at the bar.

That smug fuck and his soulless cronies get to walk away, comfortable in their psychotic certainty that they've made the world a better place.

I'll repeat that:

They get to walk away.

Bush gets to walk away.

This is our war now. It belongs to the people of conscience and decency who must lead this country out of the hell that will be a post-Bush world. Thanks a lot you spoiled, ignorant, egotistical child.

Tonight the investigative news program Frontline features the first of the two-part examination, "Bush's War". It draws on the more than 40 reports that Frontline has done on the "war on terror."

It's on right now on many Eastern Time Zone PBS stations.

I know this has been mentioned in the C&J section, but I think it needs greater visibility.  Tonight and tomorrow on PBS, Frontline will be featuring an in-depth analysis of the Iraq war, and why it is labeled "Bush's War".

I wanted to give folks a head's up about this upcoming PBS/FRONTLINE documentary.

I am one of those "kill your TV" folks, but this may be extremely worthwhile: the potential of what real journalism and TV together can be like. Maybe?

They will be launching a corresponding website as well.

More on the flip.

It is worth taking a break from the political coverage on the cable news networks.

Tonight, Frontline investigates what happened in Haditha
in Rule of Engagement (the program will also be online)

http://www.pbs.org/...

And on many PBS stations, the amazing documentary Banished
airs as part of Independent Lens (check local listings)

http://www.pbs.org/...

I'm referring to a theme touched upon in a recent PBS Frontline documentary. It's not about the candidates or the caucuses. It's not about criminals in the White House, but it is a VERY current topic that will most likely impact each of us in one way or another. Growing Up Online is what I'm talking about... how today’s youth is growing up with the incredible influence of the world wide web - quite different from how most of us here grew up. It deserves the attention of all of us in the online community who are parents, teachers, and concerned citizens. The topic is fascinating, and as with all new technology, the implications range from frightening to excitng.

If you’re so inclined, read on... I've summarized much of what was covered. It's really worth seeing and is bound to bring up quite a variety of reactions. Check out the poll, too, about how much time your kid(s) spend online....

Tonight, at 9:00 pm ET, PBS's award-winning show FRONTLINE will air On Our Watch, a moving and disturbing look at the failure of the international community to live up to its promise at the end of World War II -- Never Again:

The world invoked the vow "never again!" after the genocide in Rwanda and atrocities in Srebrenica. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years, at least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rapes have once more been used as a weapon of war in a brutal campaign by Janjaweed militias and the Sudanese government against civilians in Darfur. FRONTLINE producer Neil Docherty asks why the international community and the United Nations have once again failed to stop the slaughter.

This evening at 9 PM Frontline will talk to several experts about the CIA's secretive world-wide spiderweb for kidnapping and torturing suspected terrorists. The documentary is primarily the work of Stephen Grey, an investigative reporter and author of Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Rendition and Torture Program.

If you haven't been following this scandal as closely as we have over the years at unbossed, then I'd strongly urge you to watch the documentary tonight or view it online at PBS after tomorrow.

Does the headline from the 2005 Dallas Morning News shake you to your foundation?  Did you realize that MURDER is the number one cause of death of pregnant women in the United States? Two studies published in recent years have shed light on the problem of maternal homicides: A 2003 study in the American College of Nurse-Midwives' Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health identified homicide as the leading cause of death among pregnant women. That conclusion also was reached in a study published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

I don't think people realize how dangerous pregnancy can be for some women.  This morning's headlines on Jessie Davis' death in Ohio is a very grim reminder that it is not a bed of roses for pregnant women.  We have NO IDEA what a pregnant woman is going through.  None.  Do we American's have a social contract with pregnant women?

Frontline's must-see latest documentary, ENDGAME (what when wrong, and why, in America's tragically failed effort to find a strategy for success in Iraq), shows how we got into the mess we're in, the shocking (even for the Bush Administration) level of incompetence and the lack of options we face now:

On Dec. 19, 2006, President George W. Bush said for the first time that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. It was a dramatic admission from a president who had insisted since the start of the war that things were under control.

Now, as the U.S. begins what the administration hopes is the final effort to secure victory through a "surge" of troops, [snip] military and government officials talk to FRONTLINE about both the military and political events that have led up to the current "surge" strategy.

http://www.pbs.org/...

The fifth in a series on the Iraq war, this documentary casts a clear light on the mistakes made at the highest levels, both from a civilian and military point of view.

More below the fold...