TVNL Editor's Comments: Sometimes There Are Stupid Questions

For most of my life I have encouraged curiosity. I have always felt that there is nothing wrong with asking questions about things that you don't know. I had a long career in technology and I have had to teach many people many things. I have also had to learn many things. I was fortunate enough to work with people who were gracious with their knowledge and they shared it with me. I did and still do the same. I take the time to explain, what is to me the most boring and obvious technological information, with anyone who needs my help (well almost anyone). I understand that it is OK not to know everything and the only way to learn is to admit to yourself that you don't know something...and then find out the answers. Asking questions is one way of learning and I understand that there is nothing wrong with doing so. So I adhere to the notion that there are no stupid questions, (just stupid people!)

On the other hand...when a so called journalist, or reporter, or TV news reader, blathers on and forces him or herself to come up with questions while they are conducting an on air interview, just for the sake of filling time, my opinion about stupid questions is rendered invalid. When I watch the bozos on TV fill time by forcing themselves to ask questions for the sake of pretending to be journalists I repeatedly find myself uttering, out loud, the phrase “what the f*#K does that have to do with anything?” Some, or I should say most of the questions asked by these on-air talking heads do nothing more than expose the limited intellectual capacities of today's TV news zombies.

I know most of the on-screen teleprompter readers are vein to some extent. Nobody would want to put their face on TV everyday unless they had some sort of self appreciation. But you would think that a little pride would prevent these vein individuals from wanting to look stupid. One would think that, but one would be wrong. But then again, most Americans have been conditioned to the point of not being able to spot the obvious, even if the obvious comes in the form of a blithering idiot pretending to be a journalist!

The on-air TV clowns are to journalism what the first round rejects are to the American Idol competition. Unfortunately it would take an American Idol/Journalism Edition before the masses of oblivious Americans noticed this! Think about it! Jesse Richard – Editor, TvNewsLIES.org

NOTE: You can respond to my daily comments on my blog, located here: http://tvnewslies.org/blog

WAR : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#war

The Flight From Iraq - At a meeting in mid-April in Geneva, held by António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, the numbers presented confirmed what had long been suspected: the collapse of Iraq had created a refugee crisis, and that crisis was threatening to precipitate the collapse of the region.

At least 137 dead in Iraq violence - An Al Qaeda front group claimed Sunday to have captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, and thousands of U.S. troops combed through insurgent areas south of Baghdad searching for the missing troops.

'More troops' call as Iraq murders soar - 234 bodies dumped in Baghdad in only 11 days

Tucker: Active-Duty Generals Will ‘Revolt’ Against Bush If He Maintains Escalation Into 2008 - Appearing on NBC’s Chris Matthews Show this morning, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker revealed that sources within the military are warning of “a revolt from active-duty generals if September rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into ‘08.” Watch it:

California Paper Asks on Mother's Day: How Many More Young Americans Will Be Killed in Iraq? - The editorial page of the Stockton (Ca.) Record has a special message for readers today, in print and on the paper's Web site. Along with the photos of 20 local men killed in Iraq, it poses the question: "On this Mother's Day we ask: How many more must pay this price? Who will be next?"

Car bomb kills 30 in northern Iraq - police - A car bomb near the office of a leading Kurdish party in northern Iraq killed 30 people and wounded 50 others on Sunday, police said.

Iraqi parliament objects to Baghdad wall - Parliament took up the issue Saturday in a raucous session that included debate on the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, security raids and human rights abuses.

Bill Moyers on The True Costs of War - Now in the fifth year, Bill Moyers asks and tries to answer the question: How do you make tangible the true costs of the Iraq war?

POLITICS : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news#politics

UPDATE PENDING

ECONOMY : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#economy

You may love mom, but the U.S. doesn't - System fails mothers young and old by not helping with child care, equal wages and poverty in old age

Screw That Bulb: How GE Is Plugging Into the Green Movement to Move Jobs and Advanced Technology to China - Save the environment … or save a U.S. job? That’s the choice General Electric is forcing on U.S. consumers and its own workers.

9/11 News : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#911

Proof That Homeland Security Was Formed PRIOR to 9/11 - Tony Snow admits on Fox News on September 11, 2001 that DHS ("Homeland Defense") was a newly-created organization BEFORE 9/11, slated to receive a large influx of funding in a time of budget cuts at the Pentagon.

CONGRESS : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#congress

Congressman McHenry's Campaign Aide Indicted - The CBS News Investigative Unit has learned a man who was a field coordinator in Congressman Patrick McHenry's (R-NC) 2004 campaign has been indicted for voter fraud in North Carolina.

Open Letter to the Members of he US Congress who Oppose the War on Iraq - Everyone knows that the oil law does not serve the Iraqi people, and that it serves Bush, his supporters and the foreign companies at the expense of the Iraqi people who have been wronged and deprived of their right to their oil despite enduring all difficulties.

DOMESTIC : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#domestic

Chipping Away at the Wall of Separation - Moyers paints a stark picture of a law school and a religious leader that are having a profound effect on the American system of law and government.

Katrina Aid Program Is $2.9 Billion Short - The massive federally funded program for rebuilding Louisiana homes is short nearly $3 billion, administrators told a state legislative panel here today, leaving uncertain for now how the owners of roughly 100,000 flood-wrecked houses here will be compensated.

Anti-illegal-immigrant law OK'd in Texas - Voters in this Dallas suburb became the first in the nation Saturday to prohibit landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants.

Religious Groups Granted Millions for Pet Projects - As the number of faith-based earmarks grew, the period from 1998 to 2005 saw a tripling in the number of religious organizations listed as clients of Washington lobbying firms and a doubling in the amount they paid for services, according to an analysis by The Times.

U.S. Labels 2003 Leaked Memo 'Sensitive' - Lawyers who handle national security cases said they could not recall an instance when the classification of "sensitive security information" was formally applied to a document made public years earlier. - If the retroactive designation is upheld, lawyers say, it would instill new fears in whistle-blowers who want to release important but unclassified information to the public.

ENVIRONMENT : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#environment

Federal Loans for Coal Plants Clash With Carbon Cuts - That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming.

U.S. Aims to Weaken G-8 Climate Change Statement - A draft proposal dated April 2007 that is being debated in Bonn, Germany, this weekend by senior officials of the Group of Eight includes a pledge to limit the global temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as an agreement to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. - The United States is seeking to strike that section, the documents show.

INTERNATIONAL : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#international

U.S. Soldier Shot to Death in Pakistan - Militants opened fire Monday on a convoy carrying U.S. and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan frontier, killing one American and one Pakistani soldier, the Pakistani army spokesman said. - At least two Americans and two Pakistani soldiers and were wounded.

UN watchdog denies Iran blocked nuke visit - "There is no truth to media reports claiming that the IAEA was not able to get access to Natanz," said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Marc Vidricaire. "We have not been denied access at any time, including in the past few weeks. Normally we do not comment on such reports but this time we felt we had to clarify the matter," he said.

Pakistan set to declare state of emergency - President Musharraf could declare a state of emergency in Pakistan amid growing civil unrest against his increasingly embattled regime.

MILITARY & VETERANS : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#military

U.S. National Guard chief says funds lagging risks - The National Guard is likely to see an unprecedented level of new funds to fix or replace equipment worn out in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that's still not enough to make the force ready for homeland missions, its chief said.

Pentagon Opens Inquiry of Troop-Support Group - The inspector general is examining whether officials who run “America Supports You,” a three-year-old Pentagon program lauded by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation set up last December by former Bush administration appointees. - The inquiry is also looking into whether money used for “America Supports You” and other public outreach programs has been shifted improperly from Pentagon accounts intended for other purposes.

U.S. officers rejected Haditha probe request: Marine - U.S. commanders rejected a local council's request for an investigation days after Marines in Iraq killed 24 civilians in the town of Haditha in November 2005, according to testimony on Saturday at a military tribunal.

UK: We soldiers once assumed our political bosses would not lie to us. That is over - Of those officers I sat with in the mess four years ago, many, like me, have left the Army. Those who remain have no trust in the Government. One told me: "We won't be fooled again."

EDITORIAL : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#editorial

The Counterfeit President - George Walker Bush is a counterfeit – everything. He is a coward who wants desperately to be a war hero. He was born to old money, but he is rude, crude, and even sober, he is an embarrassment whenever he is thrown onto his own resources; he has the wit of a drunken stevedore with the intellect of a slow eight year old.

"It Takes an Enormous Amount of Courage to Speak the Truth When No One Else is Out There" -- World-Renowned Holocaust, Israel Scholars Defend DePaul Professor Norman Finkelstein as He Fights for Tenure - The battle over political science professor Norman Finkelstein to receive tenure at DePaul University is heating up. Finkelstein - one of the country’s foremost critics of Israeli policy - has taught at DePaul for the past six years. His tenure has been overwhelmingly approved at the departmental and college level, but the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has opposed it.

JOURNALISM & MEDIA : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#media

Sometimes There Are Stupid Questions - On the other hand…when a so called journalist, or reporter, or TV news reader, blathers on and forces him or herself to come up with questions while they are conducting an on air interview, just for the sake of filling time, my opinion about stupid questions is rendered invalid.

Public's Grasp of Current Issues Unchanged Despite Internet, Cable TV - Despite the emergence of 24-hour cable television news and fast-growing use of internet news sources, the U.S. public's knowledge of national and international personalities and issues is little changed from nearly 20 years ago, according to a new survey released by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

Iraq to bar press from blast scenes - Iraq's interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and cameramen from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said Sunday.

Attack Shows Peril for Iraqi Journalists - Although the U.S.-led invasion allowed the emergence of a free press not seen in this country for decades, Radio Dijla's fate was yet another reminder of the dangers to journalists here. Attacks have targeted independent and foreign media as well as both Shiite and Sunni employees of pro-government newspapers and broadcast stations.

HEALTH & SCIENCE : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#health

Common chemicals are linked to breast cancer - More than 200 chemicals — many found in urban air and everyday consumer products — cause breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today.

A Simple Neck Vertebrae Out Of Alignment Can Cause Big Trouble - A one-time chiropractic adjustment of a misaligned neck vertebra has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure in people with hypertension, according to a pilot study by University of Chicago researchers.

Costs Grow for Common Medicare Drugs - Price Increase in Prescription Program Is Twice That Seen in Wholesale Rates

Thousands of Nuclear Arms Workers See Cancer Claims Denied or Delayed - Since its inception in 2000, the compensation program has cut more than 20,000 checks and given long-delayed recognition to workers whose illnesses were hidden costs of the Cold War's military buildup. Yet, of the 72,000 cases processed, more than 60 percent have been denied.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#rights

Palestinians abandon 1,000 Hebron homes under IDF, settler pressure - A report by two major Israeli civil rights organizations that was issued Sunday indicates that Palestinians abandoned more than 1,000 homes and at least 1,829 businesses in the center of Hebron due to pressure by the Israel Defense Forces, the police and Jewish settlers. Many of those referred to fled during the second intifada, beginning in September 2000.
TVNL Comment: The US media, in a conspiratorial manner, ignores this type of story and anyone who tries to discuss it is labeled an anti-Semite.

Two Immigrants Say U.S. Agents Drugged Them - Soeoth says that an agent asked him if he needed medication to relax him for the trip. He replied that he did not. But a few hours later, says Soeoth, several agents came into his cell. One of them, he says, was a medic. He was holding a syringe.

Collateral Genocide - Wrecking Iraq: One Million Dead, 2 Million Wounded, 3 Million Displaced

OF INTEREST : http://www.tvnewslies.org/news/#interest

Happy 70th Birthday, George Carlin… - VIDEO

Suppressing critics of Israel: The campaign against Norman Finkelstein - This campaign is part of a pattern of attacks aimed at silencing prominent critics of the Israeli government. The goal is to erode the willingness of academics, journalists, politicians and individuals to speak out against Israel's human rights record for fear of losing their jobs.