MORE ENCOURAGING STATISTICS FROM IRAQ: The Pentagon should really start announcing this stuff.

SILENT RUNNING makes some good points regarding Saudi Arabia.

MICHAEL BARONE NOTES still more good news from Iraq that’s been overlooked by most media coverage.

But how can he ignore this evidence of U.S. brutality?

IT’S A QUAGMIRE — In Germany!

Hey, we’ve still got troops there.

OXBLOG POINTS TO AN “AVALANCHE” of good-news pieces about Iraq. That’s perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but it does seem clear that the reporting we’ve been getting has omitted a lot of good news. You’d almost think there was an agenda at work or something.

DAY BY DAY IS BACK!

LT SMASH has a story about Bob Hope, and much more.

JIM BENNETT RESPONDS TO ANNE APPLEBAUM on the differences between American and British media:

Applebaum is a keenly observant commentator who has lived in both nations and is well connected with a wide range of intellects on both sides of the pond. I respect her work. However, I would at least qualify her opinion in this matter by saying that, though as a snapshot of here and now I can’t disagree with her, I think she is missing the bigger story.

Separate as the British and American information universes have been until now, a process of convergence has begun that will continue until there is only a single Anglosphere information universe. In this, the differences between right and left (for example) become more important than the distinctions of national origin. This process is already foreshadowed in the leading edge of the information universe, which at this point in time is the blogosphere — the world of the Web logs, or blogs. . . .

They will likely set the tone more and more for the coming generation. Furthermore, the rise of the blogosphere will likely affect Britain disproportionately to America.

This is because Britain has had a particularly small and closed intellectual class compared to America, a result not only of the island’s smaller size and population, but because of its comparatively small and closed university system. If you went to Oxford or Cambridge, you really did get to meet the majority of the people that would constitute the political nation for your generation. In America, in contrast, a Harvard or Yale degree obviously helped, but you knew that for the rest of your career you would also be dealing with many people from Michigan or Oklahoma, or maybe West Texas State Teacher’s College, or even no university at all, and that such people could very well be more important than you. . . .

Combined with the Internet revolution, the democratization of Britain is leading to an expanded worldview, one that is already seeing both its right and left aligning much more closely with their American counterparts than ever before. Even British anti-Americanism, once the prerogative of the patrician Tory sneer, has succumbed to Anglosphere convergence, and must import Michael Moore as cheerleader.

Interesting.

UPDATE: John Leo, in a piece on journalistic quote-altering, notes:

The BBC, probably the most relentlessly anti-American organization in Britain, recently altered a transcript of one of its own stories, thus misquoting itself. The story dealt with Park Jong-lin, a 70-year-old veteran of the Korean War who “served in the North Korean army fighting against the imperialist American aggressors and their South Korean accomplices.” In the altered version quote marks now surround “imperialist American aggressors” and the BBC’s reference to “accomplices” was changed to “allies.”

Prediction: Because Internet bloggers now watch the wayward BBC carefully, more touched-up transcripts will come to light. The BBC, by the way, falsely reported the Jessica Lynch rescue as a made-for-TV special faked with U.S. soldiers firing blanks for the cameras. (Change that transcript!)

I think it’s a safe prediction.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bob Bartley describes the problem well, whether at the BBC, Reuters, or The New York Times:

The opinion of the press corps tends toward consensus because of an astonishing uniformity of viewpoint. Certain types of people want to become journalists, and they carry certain political and cultural opinions. This self-selection is hardened by peer group pressure. No conspiracy is necessary; journalists quite spontaneously think alike. The problem comes because this group-think is by now divorced from the thoughts and attitudes of readers.

Yes, and it’s sufficiently insular that it won’t be revisited without considerable pressure. Blogs are providing some of that, but I think the market will provide more.

WILL JAMES LILEKS FORGIVE ME? I’m dissing Target over at GlennReynolds.com.

JAMES LILEKS WRITES:

In the Sunday book pages of the Strib was an article about the women of Afghanistan. It was discussing the new-found freedoms of women in the post-Taliban society, about girls queuing for school after years of oppression. Quote: “No matter what one’s political misgivings about the war might be, the sight of those girls was a thrilling shock.”

That sentence stuck in my head, and made me think back to October 01, to all the discontent over the Afghan campaign. We’ve forgotten what that was like – the marches in Europe, the predictions of mass casualties, the accusations of empire-building, how it was all about (cue Twilight Zone theme) an oil pipeline, how it would become a quagmire, how it was a quagmire, how we should have used international law to bring OBL to justice. It was the dress rehearsal for Iraq. The same blind sputtering fury; the same protests with Bush = Hitler posters and giant mocking puppets; the same inability to accept that a byproduct of the campaign would be a freer society for the very people the protesters supposedly cared about.

Any mass executions at the Kabul soccer stadium recently? No?

Wonder why.

No thanks to the people who purport to care, that’s for sure.

“HOW DO I GET MY WORK DONE?” A lot of bloggers and surfers will find this thread interesting.

My advice: Break things down into small chunks.

PRISONS ARE A GROWTH INDUSTRY:

The nation’s prison population grew 2.6 percent last year, the largest increase since 1999, according to a study by the Justice Department.

The jump came despite a small decline in serious crime in 2002. It also came when a growing number of states facing large budget deficits have begun trying to reduce prison costs by easing tough sentencing laws passed in the 1990s, thereby decreasing the number of inmates.

“The key finding in the report is this growth, which is somewhat surprising in its size after several years of relative stability in the prison population,” said Allen Beck, an author of the report.

I wonder how many people are in there for nonviolent crimes — or for things, like marijuana possession, that shouldn’t be crimes at all? It’s not clear from this report. But TalkLeft’s post on the subject suggests that it’s a lot.

MICKEY KAUS is on a hot streak.

But Mickey, when are you going to do a Gearbox review of the Mazda RX-8? USA Today likes it, Business Week calls it “supercool,” the Washington Post calls it “transcendental”, and the Insta-Wife think’s it looks “hot.” But I won’t know what I think until I read your review!

I sure liked my 1980 RX-7.

JOURNALISM TODAY: Two letters from Romenesko that are worth reading:

From ANDREW MILNER: So we hand out bylines to proven plagiarists and fabulists, tell anyone who criticizes this that they’re “completely lacking a sense of humor” and then scratch our heads wondering why 90 percent of the public hold our profession in utter contempt. Maybe respect from the masses begins with a little professional self-respect.

—

From JOHN CALLAHAN: Letter after letter talking about the Esquire/Glass/Blair deal, and only a single letter — one lousy letter — about Reuters’ hatchet job on Deanna Wrenn’s Jessica Lynch story? Let me get this straight: Reuters takes a local piece about a young woman and soldier returning home, turns it into a not-so-subtle anti-administration screed that one first amendment expert called “politically incendiary” (and the expert, UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh, was being charitable — you really have to read this piece to believe it), and Karen Heyman is the only one with anything to say?

It’s no surprise that journalism’s reputation has suffered in recent years. It’s moderately surprising that journalists — so quick to point out misbehavior by other institutions — are so slow to catch on to the damage to their own profession. Here’s a link to Volokh’s comments on the Reuters scandal — which isn’t nearly as big a scandal as it ought to be.

THE GLOBALIZATION OF GAZA: Michael Totten wonders whether a Palestinian state is likely to create more terrorism, rather than reducing it.

HOWARD KURTZ has issued an endorsement in the Californial recall / election.

I think it was the thong that won him over.

UPDATE: I think the thong is what scared Arnold out of the race, too.

SOME CONFIRMATION for the “flypaper” theory:

He said there is evidence that terrorists and religious extremists from outside Iraq have entered the country to engage coalition forces, but no evidence indicates they are being sponsored by other governments.

“This is what I would call a terrorist magnet, where America, being present here in Iraq, creates a target of opportunity,” Sanchez said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“But this is exactly where we want to fight them. …This will prevent the American people from having to go through their attacks back in the United States.”

Does this mean it’s a good idea? No (though I think it is) but it’s evidence that it’s part of the strategy.