Last time I checked my watch the "Iraqi War" or "Gulf II" or "Showdown Iraq" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" or whatever you'd like to name it was over. Bush won. He's now taking his parade lap on the big white horse wearing his big white hat. The flags are waving, the confetti is falling, the trumpets are sounding. The hero's are coming home. Well, some are anyway. We will establish four permanent military bases in Iraq for security purposes. I don't say the United States won because I think it takes time to determine something like that. That's not some sort of lefty sour grapes statement either it's simply the truth. The current administration won and won big. The "WAR" went as planned. Stunning victory in record time, minor number of casualties, infrastructure still relatively intact. Evil dictator vanquished. I do not begrudge Bush and this administration their celebratory photo-ops, by all means fire up your pomp and circumstance. I had thought all along that this would be like a fight from early in Tyson's career. I'm thankful that it was.

   What have we as a nation won though? I don't really know yet. Do you? Only time will tell. It's not much to say that we stomped Iraq. I mean come on, nobody in their right mind could say that was ever in question. No value in the bragging rights to that statement is there? An elder football player once gave this advice to a rookie after the rook had just scored his first touchdown...and followed this event up with an outrageous and lengthy endzone dance:

   "Listen kid, when you score, act like you've been there before."

  Hey, if the Democrats had scored this sort of victory they too would be doing an endzone dance. I think this sort of advice is outdated in todays society. When all about us promotes an "in your face", "attack, attack, attack" sort of attitude. It's not enough to achieve victory these days, on whatever level, it's also required that you rub everyones nose in your win. Hell, it seems almost respected to do so. We seem to have lost all our notions of dignity. It would take me paragraphs to define this thought and I won't bore you with that right now.

   Let's get to Billy O.

     When Paddy Chayefsky wrote "Network" he had identified the malignant tumor in the body of conglomerate media. Since then this tumor has grown and the cancer has spread. Rather than heeding Paddy's grave warning sign and proceeding to seek treatment, we ignored it pressed onward. Billy O is a result of this. A buffoon who has rode the wave of sensationalistic babble to a sudden, though not unexpected, moment in the spotlight. It is not his politics that I find disturbing, it's the fact that anyone could take him seriously. He's a bought and paid for media stooge. The ultimate whore in the largest of whorehouses. The perfect candidate for what he does because he could care less about his reputation. His career, if you could call it that, is a patchwork of associations with the lowest of the low in National Enquirer-like television shows. He's got no reputation to protect and lives by the idea that the American public has a short attention span and an even shorter memory. Dale, my friend, how could you even assert that his popularity equates to some sort of credability? If this were the case would not Britney Spears be a genius of the musical realm? I bet you have her records right next to your collection of Eminem records. You don't though because popularity is meaningless in that sense.

   Let's look at Billy boy's stance on the WOMD deal. On his radio show he said during the war "We should be Fed-Exing the WOMDS over there right now to plant in the event we don't find any." So he's encouraging the idea that the administration lie to the American public and the world. I think Bush and his crew have determined that this would be stupid and is above all not necessary. The goal has been achieved. Arguments and proof of WOMD don't matter now it's all after the fact. Sure, the Bush administration respins their take on the war to suit any given moment. That's politics left or right. Right now, they are hanging that big white hat on the fact that Saddam is gone and that Iraqis are dancing in the streets. That we accomplished the goal in grand fashion with little loss. WOMD are not on the radar screen at the moment and only had to be hung over our head to justify our involvement in the first place. This only serves to make our boy Billy O look more like the idiot he is. See for Billy to say he's living in the "No-Spin Zone" is nonsense like everything else he says. He's all spin, all the time. He just acts like a pitbull and barks and snarls and spits but could care less whether he's right or wrong. As long as he attracts attention. He's talking loud and saying nothing. It's a strategy that suits the current climate of our society in that it vents some peoples feelings of being helpless and hopeless. It doesn't matter if he's right, just that he attacks someone. Anyone. It's nonsense but people want to see and hear the attacks because it satisfies their lust to see someone, anyone, being put on the spot and made to pay for what they feel is wrong in their world.   

  I think it's odd that Pat would say that ol' Bill's take on the WOMD deal shows he's all about "No Spin".  It's really just another bone for this little doggie named Bill to gnaw on in public. He's not ahead of the curve with this issue. He's just saying this now because he sees it as perfect timing for his stock in trade, controversy and sensationalism. If it was Ted Kennedy saying it I think Pat would be bashing the hell of those words. Say it now while Bush is posing for photos on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declaring the end of the war and I'll look like I'm going against the grain. That's Bill's world. It's not about truth, it's about spin.

  One point about statistics. They are like a wrench to a mechanic to someone in politics or who writes propaganda for a living. When an argument is based on stats it's all about spin. No argument based on statistics should be trusted because they are designed to be manipulated to support an agenda. When you resort to stats you have debased your argument. You will notice that statistics have become overwhelmingly popular in our culture. A born muckraker like Billy wallows in them like a pig in slop. My feeling on this guy is that someone left the men's room and forgot to flush.

Dale, Pat, whoever, sure celebrate the Bush victory. Say Bush was right all along. He did win. I respect your conservative viewpoint. That's all fine. Let's not "factor" this idiot O'Reilly into the equation. He's a part of the media problem that plagues us.

                                                                 Reg