What?!?, Clinton right again?
Bill was right to suggest that dems move on from the iraq issue. Nobody is going to think they can do better.. They should realize that this is important no matter who wins in '04. The issue will long outlast the election and will mater no less to our national credibility - no matter how "rightly" or not. Perceptions form the basis of international political reality -- we must get Iraq on course over the next few years or our legitmacy there evaporates.

LIBERAL MEDIA
It is during the selection and determination of what is "news" that much bias creeps in. If this story is only about a "few" individuals and their individual decisions to move to Canada, then it is not "news" that warrants its publication and distribution by a news organization, in this case, the Associated Press. Far from being just a quaint little human interest piece, it draws greater conclusions based on those few interviewees (which include a Minnesota puppeteer and a gay "executive"). Witness the author's leading observations in the story:

Discontent Americans Consider Canada

For all they share economically and culturally, Canada and the United States are increasingly at odds on basic social policies.

I will give the author credit for including this paragraph, though buried:

But every year since 1977, more Canadians have emigrated to the United States than vice versa — the 2001 figures were 5,894 Americans moving north, 30,203 Canadians moving south.

Perhaps an honest news story would have been titled Discontent Canadians Consider The United States, with a collection of anecdotes about our better health care system and lower tax burden. Instead, we get this spin from the AP.

No, this story is not legitimate "news", but simply an effort to give a soapbox to a very small group of people (and the author) to extoll the virtues of the wonderful, open, unselfish, liberal society that has been constructed to our North.

Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean that they aren't out to get me.

Liberal Media or Paranoid Conservatives?
Winston, you are too honest for this. The "liberal utopia" blog below is an exercise in deception. You conveniently left out the key phrase in the cited paragraph which noted that "a few discontented Americans" were planning to move. Further, AP writer Cary did not assert anything about America vs. Canada - he reported the reasons cited by the "few individuals" cited. What liberal media indeed? What about a few standards being set for complaining about the media - like checking your claims before whining? There are plenty of valid reasons to gripe about the media -- there's no need to create questions about your own credibility by blatantly misrepresentating of the story.

LIBERAL UTOPIA? I GIVE YOU . . . CANADA
The AP is practicing the social sciences again by anecdote, this time finding a few Americans who want to move to Canada and then drawing broad socialogical conclusions. Why move to Canada? Well, without quotation or contradiction or balance, AP writer David Crary asserts:

Though each has distinct motives for packing up, they agree the United States is growing too conservative and believe Canada offers a more inclusive, less selfish society.

What liberal media?

Anyway, Canada is also home to a burgeoning new religious order. Jedi. Over Twenty Thousand Canadians claim the "religion" on their 2001 census forms. Let's see, Jedi are celebate warriors who adhere to a very strict moral code that emphasizes personal responsibility. Sounds like these discontent Americans who dream of liberal, unselfish Canada may have chosen poorly. Perhaps they'd prefer living under the auspices of the United Nations, an ineffective megacommittee of unelected representatives from all over the world, run by corrupt and ineffective bureaucrats who are so tied up in red tape, that, after years of discussions in a committee, they decide that removing a brutal tyrant is a bad idea. Hmm, sounds like the Jedi's enemy, the Imperial Senate.

JUSTICE
Carl Levin's going to have a news conference claiming that our intelligence was wrong, Bush lied to us, and these two guys were good boys who were in Mosul volunteering for meals on wheels.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


STATEMENT REGARDING OPERATION IN MOSUL, IRAQ

Statement from US Central Command:

On Tuesday, July 22, forces associated with the 101st Airborne Division and Special Operations Forces conducted an operation against suspected regime figures at a residence in Mosul, Iraq. The site is currently being exploited. Four Iraqis were killed in the operation. We have confirmed that two of the dead were Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay.