The Most Important Blog... Ever

Horrific news from Israel and Palestine today.

First, early this morning, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who was apparently attempting to get into Gaza. Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper, carried this story. This was the fourth Palestinian shot and killed by Israelis since February 8, when Israel declared an informal cease-fire. None of the US MSM (mainstream media) websites that we monitor had a headline about this tragic death on their front pages.

More terrible news came this evening (Israeli time) as an apparent Palestinian suicide bomber blew up at a beachfront cafe in the largest Israeli city, Tel Aviv (Ha'aretz report). At least four Israelis were killed and dozens more were wounded. Allow me to reiterate my personal belief that these suicide attacks are absolutely disgusting and completely unjustified. I join with the Palestinian government in condemning this attack in the strongest possible terms.

I also will reiterate my belief that devastating attacks such as this one are, of course, very much newsworthy events.

And the US MSM agrees -- the top stories right now on CNN.com, MSNBC.com, FOXnews.com ABCnews.com, and NYTimes.com all report the bombing in Tel Aviv. Here are the headlines:

CNN: Three Dead in Tel Aviv Bombing
NYTimes: 3 Dead as Suicide Bomber Hits Nightclub in Tel Aviv
CBS: Suicide Bomber Hits Tel Aviv Club
FoxNews: Homicide Blast Rocks Tel Aviv
MSNBC: Suicide Attack: Three Killed, dozens hurt near Tel Aviv nightclub
ABC: Deadly Suicide Blast at Israeli Nightclub

None of these reports mention the tragic death of the Palestinian man earlier today in Gaza, which is another very newsworthy event, particularly in light of this suicide attack (which might be a retaliation).

It is my contention that when Israelis are killed by Palestinians, the story nearly always makes headlines in the US MSM. Today we see that as all six news organizations that we monitor have this tragic story as their top news item of the day.

It is also my contention that when Palestinians are killed by Israelis, that story does not often make headlines in the US MSM. Today marks the eighth time that we've noted that a Palestinian was killed by Israelis and there were no headlines in the US MSM about it. Indeed, the failure of the US media to report this in their stories about the latest violence in Tel Aviv is particularly glaring. Also note that just last week on February 15, we reported the sad news that three Palestinians were killed in two seperate incidents by Israelis -- and none of the US media carried a headline about it.

All of today's stories about the suicide bombing suggest that this attack strains the informal cease-fire announced by Israeli PM Sharon and Palestinian President Abbas on February 8. The US media have never suggested that the four Palestinians killed since February 8 might strain the cease-fire.

This project also contends that headlines about Israelis deaths often explicitly blame Palestinians. This wasn't the case today, so the headline tally remains unchanged at 2-2.

The project also monitors photos appearing on US MSM websites. We are looking for images of Palestinians with guns, Israelis with guns, Palestinians grieving, and Israelis grieving. Today we have one relevant image of an Israeli grieving from CBSNews.com:



That brings our tally of photos to 5 of Palestinians with guns, 2 of Israelis with guns, 1 of Israelis grieving, and none of Palestinians grieving since the start of the project in January 2005.

Again, today marks the eighth time we've seen the death of a Palestinian at the hands of Israelis without a headline in the US MSM. We have never seen the death of an Israeli at the hands of Palestinians go without making headlines in the US MSM.

I'll also point out that today's FOXNews.com story alters an Associated Press text to call the attack a "homicide bombing," a practice that violates journalistic integrity, as has been noted by Media Matters.

Let's hope that today's tragic news doesn't quash the possibility for further peace talks completely.

Here on The Most Important Blog... Ever, we've been imploring the nation to repair the embarrassment that is our electoral system. We've called specifically for an end to partisian electoral commissioners like huge douche Katherine Harris and Wal-Mart Douchebag Award receipient Ken Blackwell.

The good people at MoveOn.org have heard our call and set up a new campaign - Repair the Vote to demand non-partisian electoral commissioners -- and more. Go check it out.

Couldn't resist.

This is not what I signed up for when I moved here. I want my money back.

Those of you sophisticated enough to read this, your Most Important Blog... Ever, regularly, will remember a few months ago, I noticed one of those Google-powered targeted ads suggesting that I go look for terrorism on eBay.

The way these Google ads work is pretty simple. Some amazing computer programs scan the webpage you're looking at (or the words you searched with) for special words. If those key words match up with an advertiser's message, then they show you a custom-made link to that advertiser's site. If you click on it, the advertiser pays Google something like a billion dollars. The idea is to make the ads you see more relevant to what you're doing on the web and thus you, the consumer, will be more likely to have interest in the ad. Fine idea, right?

Well, here's yet another great moment in targeted advertising. Saw this on a news webpage today. Awesome. Way to go, eBay!

Palestinian Sale

- New & used Palestinian. Check out the deals now!
www.eBay.com

The Ragin Asian brought this to my attention, the latest in Ohio's long, long list of shitty ideas.

This bill, recently introduced in the Ohio state assembly, would implement a new "academic bill of rights" for the students in that godforsaken state.

Yes! Finally, a state that is willing to protect its students from the tyranny of education! I mean, how dare these pesky teachers and professors try to teach students anything that they don't already agree with. We are supposed to have freedom in the country, after all. These professors teaching students about evolution and structural racism... this is outrageous! I want freedom from these ideas! I want them to teach me what I already believe!

Right. Essentially, this "bill of rights" would allow students to dictate what they want to be taught. Anything that doesn't jive with what they already believe would be subject to questioning. You want to teach evolution? Well, that's not enough -- this bill of rights would require that teachers include every possible explanation for the existence of humans. Equal treatment for all ideas. Forget about reasoned conclusions -- just give everything it's fair time in the classroom.

The bill also specifically prohibits teachers from "persistently introducing controversial matter" or presenting "coursework that has no relation to their subject of study." In other words, teachers shouldn't say anything remotely political, ever. Better to hide your true feelings in an attempt to display perfect neutrality.

This is bullshit. Would the authors of this bill stand up and defend Ward Churchill -- the Colorodo professor who said that the 9/11 attacks were understandable and the victims in the World Trade Center were "little Eichmanns?" That's an idea, right? Wanna go defend him, O noble Ohioans? Or how about introducing Wiccan ideas about the origin of magic into the classroom. Just another idea right? So, it deserves time in the classroom. And I read a book once that said God doesn't exist. I want freedom to learn that! Help me, Ohio! Help!

Look, students should of course be judged on the merits of their work and not prejudged because of their personal political beliefs. And I've never heard of a teacher penalizing a student because of the student's political beliefs. If that were to happen, there are ways to redress the problem. Forcing teachers to hide their political beliefs wouldn't help.

Students shouldn't be free from ideas they don't agree with. They should be free to express disagreement with any idea they are presented with. And I think with the current system in academia, they are allowed to do just that.

Get over it, conservatives, academia is full of liberals and you can't stop them.

More bad news today that failed to make headlines in the US MSM (Mainstream Media).

Ha'aretz reports that three Palestinians were killed by Israelis today, including a 15 year old boy. (The BBC also had a report on this today, but it does not mention the death of the boy.)

In the first incident, two Palestinians, apparently guarding an abandonded building, were shot and killed "without provocation" by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. In a seperate incident, an Israeli settler in the West Bank shot and killed a 15 year old boy who apparently was throwing rocks at cars driving along an Israeli-only highway in the West Bank. Another boy was injured in the incident.

The US MSM today have headlines which almost uniformly read "Sharon: Israel Ready to Compromise for Peace." Here are the reports from ABC, FOX, and the NYTimes, all with headlines to that effect. CBS, CNN, and MSNBC did not have a headline about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on their front pages today. I find it quite ironic and telling that the headline today is about the Israeli government making peace, when three Palestinians were killed at the hands of Israelis in two seperate incidents today.

It is my contention that when Israelis are killed by Palestinians, that news makes headlines in the US MSM. We have yet to observe an incident where an Israeli was killed and there were not headlines about it in the US MSM.

None of the US MSM websites have a headline about three Palestinians being killed today. We are watching for incidents where Palestinians are killed by Israelis and the US media doesn't have headlines about it. We have observed this on seven seperate occasions now.

We are also observing photos that appear with stories about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. On this occasion, the FOX News story features two photos with Palestinian soldiers working with their guns. Here they are:




The FOX story also includes an image of a smiling Sharon and a pensive Palestinian President Abbas. The ABC News story includes another image of a smiling Sharon. The NYTimes article has no image.

Again, I'll remind the reader that Israelis killed Palestinians with guns today. There are no images of Israelis holding guns in these stories, but there are two of Palestinians with guns. This changes our photo tally to 5 of Palestinians with guns and 2 of Israelis with guns since the start of the project last month.

The headline tally, which counts number of headlines attributing deaths to one side or the other, remains unchanged at 2-2, because none of the headlines mention the sad deaths today.

For more project details, click here.

OK, just a quick hit here, but I find it hard to believe that people actually pay this woman $275 for this class. She just might be the next recipient of the ignoble Wal-Mart Douchebag Award. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Jason for pointing out our error in the gender of this potential douchebag.

This story is a few days old, but I'm just getting wind of it, from the conservative National Ledger.

In the wake of the Sir Douchebag Armstrong scandal, two other columnists have been outed for accepting tens of thousands of dollars from the Bush Administration to write columns supportive of administration policies. These two took bribes while writing about the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. It took place in much the same way that Douchebag Armstrong received his bribes. A governmental department (in this case Health and Human Services) paid a PR company to disseminate "information" about administration policies, and then this PR company paid columnists.

Once again, the Bush Administration is working overtime to provide PR to the American people, rather than working to tell the truth. I wonder how they'll promote their current plans to destroy social security? Hire a few columnists via the Treasury Department?

I'm pissed at the administration for spending my tax dollars on PR, when they could be spending it on, oh, I don't know, education or homeless shelters. And I'm pissed at these columnists for not disclosing that they're on the government payroll. Once again, I'm happy to disclose that I get paid zero dollars to produce this, your Most Important Blog... Ever.

There was more violence in Gaza, despite the recent ceasefire declaration. Apparently, on Wednesday, the Israeli army opened fire at a group of men approaching an Israeli Jewish-only settlement in Gaza. Here's the info from Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper:

Hamas said that the barrage came in response to a Wednesday incident near the southern Gaza settlement of Atzmona, in which IDF soldiers opened fire at a group of four men who came within 70 meters of the fence surrounding the settlement, critically wounding one of them.

The man apparently died of his wounds later that night. Hamas then decided to start lobbing rockets and mortars at a settlement in retaliation.

So, the big story making headlines today is that President Abbas has fired two top security officials in Gaza for failing to prevent Hamas from lobbing bombs at the Israeli settlements.

I won't count the killing of this guy by the Israelis as not making headlines in the US, because the whole story is getting a lot of attention, but I'll note that none of the headlines that I've seen note that the Israelis were apparently first to open fire after the ceasefire was declared.

The reaction so far has been better than I expected. The Israelis pressured Abbas to act, and he did, by firing those security chiefs. I'm sure that those security chiefs, who must be popular in Gaza, will be very angry, and this might spark more Palestinian/Palestinian conflicts in Gaza in the coming days and weeks. We'll have to wait and see -- and hope.

These things aren't often very funny, but this one is pretty hilarious. I'm sure there are several reasons to be offended by this list, but, like I always say, any good humor is bound to be offensive. So, here you go.

Some potential good news out of Israel and Palestine today for the first time in a long time. The two sides, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, met at the highest level today for the first time since the summer of 2001. Both the Palestinian President and the Israeli Prime Minister made a verbal committment to reduce violence. Specifically, President Mahmoud Abbas promised to "stop all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians, wherever they are." Prime Minister Sharon, in turn, promised that "Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians anywhere."

After four years, this kind of talk is very, very welcome. B'tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization keeping statistics on the toll of the war, reports that more then 4,000 people have died since September, 2000.

There is space for a little cautious optimism here, simply because the two leaders met and shook hands today. But, I have a few notes. First of all, there was no written declaration here. There was no discussion of the underlying issues -- prisoners, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders.... This was just an attempt to shore up what is considered the sine qua non issue -- security -- with some bold verbal promises.

The Palestinians will have difficulty keeping their promise. Abbas' Palestinian Authority has been decimated by the Israelis over the last four years and he has very little real power to stop all acts of violence by all Palestinians everywhere -- particularly in Gaza, where Hamas just did very well in local elections. If Israel holds Abbas to the same arbitrary standard that they to which they held Arafat -- 14 days with absolutely no violence -- then this effort is doomed to fail. No government can stop all crimes by all of its citizens everywhere. But, Abbas has done more in the last few weeks than Arafat did in the last few years to try to bring the violence down. Let's hope he succeeds.

But on the Israeli side there are also some issues. Sharon's statement today was carefully worded. His cease-fire promise is explicitly linked to the absense of Palestinian violence. And, crucially, he didn't promise to stop defensive military operations, and whenever the Israeli army fires a gun, the Israelis always claim that it was a defensive operation. So it's hard to see how the Israelis moved very far with today's statement.

The real test will come in the next few weeks. Someone will blink and there will be a shot fired. The reaction (of the Israelis, of the Palestinians, and of the Americans) will be the true measure of how much things have changed with the coming of a new Palestinian President, a new cabinet for Sharon, and a renewed committment from the White House.

My optimism is very tempered, though, considering that we've seen all of these "new" things before. The key, it seems, again is how much the Americans are willing to pressure both sides effectively.

Here's to hope. And we'll be back with less heavy stuff here on your Most Important Blog... Ever tomorrow.

Here is the internet's best recap of the Super Bowl. Priceless. Remember to read with a British accent.

An illegal contact call against the Patriots rescues the Eagles after McNabb's latest pass goes well astray. On the next play, Rodney Harrison's fine interception just outside the endzone sees New England regain the ball.

How about we go ahead and fire this douchebag, too? I hate that people like this give my country a bad name all the damn time.

Seriously. I ask you again. What would it take for this man to get fired?

Don't you just hate ACLU-types? Those pesky liberals who are always corrupting our youth with the knowledge that burning the flag is protected by the first amendment. And the idea that newspapers should take the government to task, always standing in opposition. Those damn liberals have overrun our education system and our kids will never learn...

What? A major two-year survey of American high school students shows that over two-thirds of US high school students believe (wrongly) that the law prohibits flag burning?

And half believe that newspapers shouldn't be allowed to publish articles that the government doesn't approve of?

Man, I guess those freedom-loving conservatives have almost succeeded in stopping those damn ACLU-types from corrupting our youth with crazy ideas like 'freedom of speech.'

Almost there, conservatives! Just gotta get that last half to fall in line and then everyone will believe that whatever comes out of Bush's mouth must be the truth.