March 2006 Archives

Finn picked up a cold from his trip to California to see his grandma,
and Nancy and I got it too. It didn't seem to bother him as much as
us; snot dribbling down his face and sneezing repeatedly are no big
deal. He's over it, but he sees us sniffling blowing our noses all the
time. This morning he rips off a single square of toilet paper in the
bathroom, holds it to his face, and snorts. He doesn't see what Daddy
and Mommy get out of it, but he wants to try it out himself! Then he
gives you a little smile, like, I can do it too! Somehow it doesn't
sound as cute when I write it down, but trust me, it was.

Howard Kaloogian is running for Congress as a Republican.  He supports the troops, and goes to Baghdad to prove that it's not as bad as the media claims.  Only his photo that "proves" Baghdad's actually a calm, peaceful place for business and tourism is actually of Istanbul.  Somehow I don't think it's the media we need to be afraid of.

Kaloogians' website (from Google cache, since his website seems to be flooded):
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:mh-l6dYJ53cJ:www.kaloogianforcongress.com/aboutus.asp%3Fid06%3D116%26par06%3D104+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

His quote:
"Downtown Baghdad:   We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq.  Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be.  But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

Photo that proves it wasn't from Iraq (Bakirkoy is a suburb of Istanbul):
http://static.flickr.com/36/119848830_edb9682dc4.jpg?v=0

Side by side comparison:   http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/forkinhim.jpg

Stop blaming the media.  If two schools opened and a bomb killed five people in your home town, which do you think would make the papers?