A few months back I moved with my boyfriend to El Dorado Hills, an affluent and conservative community. The first week, I found a free weekly newspaper in my driveway and
wrote this. Having decided that this newspaper was purely community fluffiness and rah-rah, I never opened another one and sent them directly into the recycling bin. Follow me below the fold as I eat humble pie!
So, tonight I'm stuck at a local pizza parlor waiting on take-out. Bored, I pick up a copy of
Village Life. As you will recall, a week or so ago, Bush swooped in and out of EDH to raise money for John Doolittle here in CA-04, leaving me annoyed and stuck at home with a poopy dog in order to avoid any traffic snarls. So of course, I began reading that front page article
Bush ramps up rhetoric in EDH speech as election nears. And suddenly, I had a whole new respect for the journalistic integrity of this fluffy, rah-rah news weekly:
On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that U.S. casualties in Iraq have reached a two-year high. In September 776 U.S. soldiers were wounded in action in and around Baghdad; in the first week of October, nearly 300 more. Since the war began in March, 2003, more than 20,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded and more than 2,700 killed.
Bush laid out a series of successes obtained through the detention and harsh interrogation measures (which some opponents call torture) practiced by the CIA and military personnel over the last several years. The program was declared unconstitutional and illegal by the Supreme Court in the Hamdan decision this summer.
As a result of that ruling, and facing possible prosecution under the War Crimes Act and the Geneva Convention, the administration put the new Military Commissions Act before Congress, which it passed in a rush with a Republican majority on Sept. 28 before recessing.
The act makes legal the indefinite detention of "enemy combatants," both foreign and domestic -- including U.S. citizens -- without trial, and gives the president the power to decide who and what constitutes an "enemy combatant," as well as what measures constitute "aggressive interrogation."
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but for a weekly newspaper in a conservative community, this was stunning. And further, while discussing his remarks on the Military Commisions Act recently passed:
But Democrats opposed the act because it threatens the fundamental right of American citizens to a fair trail, to humane treatment while incarcerated and because it effectively pardons the president and his administration for any illegal actions regarding the treatment of detainees up to this point.
No Democrat has opposed the capture and prosecution of any terrorist. Nor has any Democrat opposed, as Bush has alleged, the wiretapping of terrorist phone conversations as long as warrants are obtained as required by law under the FISA Act
I urge you to follow the links and read the whole article, as there is more commendable journalism in the entire piece. Again, EDH is not New York or even Sacramento; and this article is breathtakingly honest in presenting facts in addition to reporting the rhetoric. And feel free to send any comments to editor@villagelife.com as I'm sure it would puzzle them to no end why they're getting emails from all over the world!
And the icing on the cake? Remember that "People Talk" section that so amused me? Well, this weeks question (link unavailable online) was: "Last Monday, Village Life asked 'What do you think of President Bush coming to El Dorado Hills?' but we were unable to get anyone to reply 'on the record'. Why do you think no one was willing to answer the question?" Five respondents. One proud kool-aide drinker, two disgruntled folks, and two cheery and non-opinionated answers. Again, for one of the most affluent and conservative towns in CA-04, this was a real eye-opener. I'm beginning to think that Charlie Brown might just be heading to Congress after Nov. 7.