While I admire Ms Olsen's stance, it is important to note that the struggle IS NOT over. The reason Ms. Olsen's testimony is no longer necessary to the government building the case is not because the government had some great constitutional epiphany, but rather because Lt. Watada essentially got the reporters off the hook by attesting to the veracity of their reporting. I'm glad it has turned out this way for the press, but I do not see that it is in any way indicative of an idealogical "win".
It's one small step for the press. And I'm glad they are off the hook. But let's pray that the press doesn't consider itslf off the case. And I don't mean simply the Lt's case. I mean the military-'justice' case. And since the MJ system is metastasizing into the civil (and Constitutuional) realm, then to kick some tire regarding the MJ/JAG system will lead to reversing the dangerous writ-creep that is starting to deform and weaken our Constitutional protections. It's not for nothing that Bush is appointing many ex-JAGs to serious positions: their approach to Law is that it is to be put at the service of Command and that they are the go-to guys for that 'mission'. Brrrrr. Grrrrr. Citizens of Press, to the barricades!
The news conference with Sarah Olson and Defend the Press coaliition will be Feb. 1st, Thursday, 2pm, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Reporters interested in attending should send an email to: john AT prwatch.org .
The New York Times provided <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/20070123_STATEOFUNION.html">an exciting gimmick</a> to fully enjoy the show : an online search engine comparing the usage of keywords during all SotU speeches since 2001.
For example, the words Iraq/Iraqi(s) were never used in 2001, twice in 2002, and respectively 21, 24, 27, 16 and 34 times the following years. You can even visualize and localize all occurences in all speeches on a graph.
If you compare "Security" with "Social Security", you can notice all 15 occurences of the former were actually associated with the latter in 2001. One year later, only 2 of 19 occurences of Security had something to do with health.
Bush bats a steady 5,000 words and 53.5 "America" per speech, plus 5.7 for "United States". "China" is not exactly at the top of his mind : he uttered it once this year, tying the humble record of years 2002, 2003 and 2006. The "World" ? Dubya didn't care for it when he took office (2 mentions), gave it some consideration after 9/11 (19-26-13-15-27 between 2002 and 2006), and put it back to the bottom drawer in front of a semi-hostile audience (10).
The word "peace" has never been so unpopular in his mouth : 3 miserable appearances in 2007 after a solid 6- 5- 10- 5- 12- 8 streak. On the other hand, "war" is back to its peak levels : 11 vs 2-13-13-12-5-2.
Don't be fooled by this overall rather balanced 46-58 "peace-war" ratio : from 2001 to 2007, the POTUS mentioned only 19 "liberty" and 20 "democracy" vs 44 (non-social) "security" and 145 "terror".
Another propaganda favorite looks almost abandoned this year : the "Freedom" agenda knocked only 3 times at our door (vs 8-14-5-8-21-17). W seems to have some trouble selling values this season, so he sticks to less vague concepts and pitches below the waist, where Joe Sixpack can catch a neither fast- nor knuckle- ball. Significantly, the part of "freedom" in the overall occurences of "free" is also at its lowest point : 27% vs an average 65%, after last year's staggering peak (94.4% !).
Anyway... what George W. Bush said is one thing, how he looked another and what he'll do yet another. The actual State of the Union remains that of the Divided States of Amerika.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com
______________________________________________________________________________________
Pages