When I talk with my family and friends, I tell them that what is going on now, with the shortages and suffering, is like a surgery for cancer. Saddam was a cancer. When one operates for a cancerous tumor, one must cut through the muscle and sometimes the bone, to get the entire tumor out. After the tumor is removed, the patient's muscles and bones hurt greatly and the pain continues while healing. Over time, the patient sees a change, the patient begins feeling and doing better. That is how it is in Iraq. The Americans came and took out the awful cancer and now we must work through the pain of recovery, but eventually we will enjoy a full life, free of pain, with no fear of cancer. I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.

In my mind, the whining about the failure to find WMD takes a back seat to these kinds of stories.

Sosa is expected to be suspended for using a corked bat this week, with a decision coming as early as Friday.

Not that I'm cynical or anything, but what are the chances that Bob Watson is going to mull this over for a few more days, say right around the time that the Yankees' plane departs from O'Hare on Sunday? The media in Chicago, columnists excepted, have been very quick to rush to Sosa's defense. The Sun-Times headlined screamed yesterday that the rest of Sammy's bats were pronounced clean by the league, assuring us that Sosa's reputation and prior accomplishments should stay intact. The only problem is that he wasn't using any of those bats that fateful at-bat when his twig shattered and the cork flew.

UPDATE: Well, I was wrong. . .a little. Sosa was suspended eight games starting. . .sometime that is convenient to the league (read: after the high-profile series against the Yankees is over). The league has a serious credibility issue here. Ok, I can chuckle at the league pandering to the excitement of an an interleague series. What if, instead, the Cubs were playing St. Louis or Houston this weekend? Would Watson still be compelled to delay until that series was over? Would this be fair to other teams in the league?

In the wake of the resignations of the top two editors at the New York Times, NBC News looked at declining trust in the media overall and identified two culprits: Conservative, pro-corporate bias and the Fox News Channel.

That's the funny thing about liberal claims of a conservative bias in the news media--it always rests on one target, Fox News. Every time a conservative points out liberal bias somewhere, the response is, "What about Fox News?" Ok, here's a list of all of the media outlets (and just the ones I can think of off the top of my head) with a liberal slant:

ABC CBS NBC CNN New York Times LA Times MSNBC

Is it any wonder that Fox News creams every other broadcast outlet in the ratings? Liberals can randomly pick any channel on their remotes and they will undoubtedly fall onto one that supports their view. Conservatives have one choice. But in the liberal mindset, all of the above are "middle of the road" and Fox is biased. Uh huh. Read Bias by Bernie Goldberg. Based on surveys, Washington journalists consider themselves completely unbiased by any political doctrine, yet overwhelmingly (almost 90%) they are Democrats and vote accordingly. If that is the leaping off point, how can they consider that unbiased? Is that some kind of statistical anamoly? Goldberg had one really funny and telling quote from Maureen Dowd. After Bush won the 2000 election, Dowd wondered how it could have occurred. No one she knew voted for him! Which is precisely my point. The liberal journalist lives in an isolated world in which all people thinks like him/her ("everyone I know thinks this way, therfore this is the moderate position; hence, anyone to the right of me is a rabid conservative"). They don't even recognize their own bias.

A report which was posted on our website on June 4 under the heading "Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil" misconstrued remarks made by the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, making it appear that he had said that oil was the main reason for going to war in Iraq. He did not say that. He said, according to the department of defence website, "The ... difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq." The sense was clearly that the US had no economic options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic value of the oil motivated the war. The report appeared only on the website and has now been removed.

Obviously, that was the right thing to do. The problem is, the original error is already out there and undoubtedly being repeated, certainly by those who are the most reflexively anti-Bush and anti-American. Months from now we are still going to be hearing from these guys that "Wolfowitz admitted it was all about ooooiiiiiiiillllllll."

I don't want to beat this to death, but this suggests that perhaps the accusations of an "attack on minorities" by Jose Canseco were a bit premature. Now we just need to figure out how to clear up the bad taste in his mouth (see here to get up to speed).

Maybe a refreshing beverage would help. Perhaps some Yoo-hoo^®.

The Weekly Standard has an interesting article on the "Big Four" blogs, and their impact on the media. What strikes me when reading this is the cycle that's implied. Bloggers react to media reports, which are increasingly influenced by bloggers' writings? Dizzying.

Jose Canseco is claiming that the current baseball scandal wouldn't have happened if Sammy Sosa was white.

"I guarantee you if this were Mark McGwire or Cal Ripken Jr., a so-called 'protected athlete', an 'All-American' name, this would have never happen because I've seen things that some players have done, and they are white players and they're completely covered up ... if he were a white superstar player, this would never, never happen."

Now, I didn't see the game, but my understanding is that the events unfolded on live television. Is Mr. Canseco claiming that a white man's bat wouldn't have shattered? Or that someone slipped Sammy the corked bat because he is a Black Latino? I'm confused. I have seen replay footage, and no one on camera shouted, "He's a minority! Check his bat for cork!!"

"So this is an attack on his character. This is an attack on minorities in general, and I'm really disgusted with it. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I know that the media is a part of this."

I would howl along with the rest if, based on this incident, MLB officials started some minority-targeted witchhunt, confiscating all of the bats used by, say Barry Bonds, for x-rays. But that's not happening. Actually, the league disclosed immediately that Sammy's 76 Other Bats were all lumber. The "investigation" is being drawn out until after the Cubs-Yankees matchups are over. All I saw on sports news this morning were "media" clips of the ovation Sosa received when he took to the field at Wrigley last night.

If this is a media conspiracy targeting Sammy Sosa's character and minorities in general, they're certainly losing their edge. If anything, it sounds more like a Jose Canseco conspiracy to tarnish the media's image... For shame.

Why doesn't this headline shock me?

Hamas Rejects Call to End Armed Attacks on Israelis

Perhaps it's because I imagine the Hamas mission statement to read something like:

Our mission is to stage armed attacks on Israelis.

This is a group whose whole purpose is violence. They're not going to heed Abbas's call for peace, because it would eliminate their purpose (and, by the way, their funding).

A spokesman for Hamas, Abdel Aziz-Rantisi, says that the organization will never lay down its arms until it liberates the whole of Palestine.
Mr. Rantisi's statement is in line with the charter of Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel, in favor of a republic governed by Islamic law.

A charter calling for destruction of any kind does not coexist well with any kind of Roadmap for Peace. So the question really is whether Abbas will do what is necessary to ensure a Palestinian state, and separate his government and people from groups like Hamas. Not just with verbal denials, either, but through actions that would likely make his administration an equal target of such terror groups. Stop their funding; make arrests; hold people accountable; root them out from everywhere.

You know, do the things that Arafat implied he would do.

So, it's official. Martha Stewart has been indicted.

< Insert Martha Stewart Serving Time magazine and prison cell make-over jokes here. >

I'm not about to defend her, but I have to wonder what's truly motivating this. Are they trying to make an example out of her, does someone have it in for her specifically, or is it truly a pursuit of justice? And where are all of the other people who were tipped off by the ImClone CEO? In prison? Or cutting deals?

The delicious irony of it all, I suppose, is that ImClone stock is at its highest levels in over a year.

I think it's great that the Amber Alert ticker to the right works so well, but I lament the fact that it's being activated with such frequency.

Stop stealing kids, people.

I didn't catch the whole thing, unfortunately, but this morning's press conference with President Bush, Ariel Sharon, Mahmoud Abbas, and their host King Abdullah II seemed fairly optimistic. Many key commitments made; now just to keep them.

The best line I did hear, though, was from the eloquent King Abdullah II:

"Blowing up buses will not lead to peace, and neither will the killing of Palestinians. All of this has to stop.''

I'd say that about sums it up.

Veteran singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, recently waking up disoriented in the middle of the night, walked into a wall and broke his nose, knocking himself unconscious, the entertainer disclosed on Tuesday.

Need more be said about that? Sure, it could be, but at some point it gets too easy...

Palm is going to buy Handspring. I guess Jeff Hawkins just can't stay away. Does this remind anyone else a little bit of Apple Computer and Steve Jobs?

Sure, they've got this Roadmap to Peace now, but can they get it folded up properly?