Which has greater significance?

Which got more coverage?

Anti-U.S. Protests Flare at Summit
150,000 Demonstrate Against Al Qaida in Morocco

Tell Me Why They Are Rioting

I have had two thoughts throughout the Paris riots. 1) why has the main stream media been reluctant to mention that a large portion of the rioters are Muslim? and 2) Tell me more!

Somewhere in the area of 40% of the rioters are Muslim. Yet, the media seems to mention this as an aside halfway through their report. In contrast, the words "predominantly black neighborhood" were used quite frequently in reference to the New Orleans disaster. No conclusion needs to be drawn from the fact that they are Muslim. But is is a significant fact, and it should be stated, as it may become significant.

And most of the reports I have seen from the AP and Reuters have been described "250 cars burned, 2 schools burned, youths" etc. There is more to this story. Are they rioting in the name of Islam? Are they truly "youths"? Clive Davis has done a nice jobof putting these riots in perspective (France-1, France-2). He has helped me gain some knowledge of the situation. In a nutshell, these neighborhoods were areas off-limits to the French authority. They were self governed by gangs. The government decided it had gone on too long and decided to take back authority. And the gangs resisted. So they are gangs - young people who had been free from the law and now they are resisting. From this perspective, the Muslim aspect is not a factor. But it is still a fact and should not be minimized as it could become a factor.

Shhh... They're Muslim.

Today, we live in a world where the main stream media can't say that the riots in Paris are in an Muslim community. For seven days, now there has been violence and rioting in the suburbs of Paris. A suburb "five miles from the Elysee Palace. Five miles from where Jacques Chirac sits." And a suburb that is predonenetly Muslim. A poor, state funded, welfare suburb that is heavily unemployed, and essentially lawless. The above quote is from an eye opening interview of Mark Steyn by Hugh Hewitt. The gist of the conversation is about the nature of these rioting communities and how the main stream media has been reluctant about telling it's audience that these riots have a heavy Muslim population. Why does it need to be hidden several paragraphs into the article?

Media and Perception with France

Here's an interesting post from Roger Simon that made me think. An American living in France tells about how there are more pro-Americans in France than you might think. I guess I've been duped again. Since I hear "French opinion" through their media, I perceive that the French are anti-American. The French media are liberal, and they support their government. Alternatively, I imagine that the French (and others outside of America) get their information from our media, a liberal establishment that is biased against our ruling political party. So, to me, it looks like "the French" hate us. And to them, they see a negatively slanted view of Americans, which only encourages them to hate us. But as I should know by now, there is more to the story than is presented in the main stream media.

A side note: This post also demonstrates the effectiveness of weblog technology. The body of the referred to post presents a view of French law. Multiple commentors correct those statements. This supports the theory that blogs are self regulating which preserves legitimacy

The Obvious is Not-So Obvious to All

Jeff Jacoby couldn't say it any more clearly. You may not be getting the whole story.

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WHAT WAS the most important news out of Iraq last week?

That depends on what you consider ''important." Do you see the war against radical Islam and Ba'athist fascism as the most urgent conflict of our time? Do you believe that replacing tyranny with democratic self-government is ultimately the only antidote to the poison that has made the Middle East so dangerous and violent? If so, you'll have no trouble identifying the most significant development in Iraq last week: the landslide victory of the new Iraqi Constitution.
...

But that isn't how the mainstream media saw it.

Consider The Washington Post. On the morning after the results of the Iraqi referendum were announced, the Post's front page was dominated by a photograph, stretched across four columns, of three daughters at the funeral of their father, Lieutenant Colonel Leon James II, who had died from injuries suffered during a Sept. 26 bombing in Baghdad. Two accompanying stories, both above the fold, were headlined ''Military Has Lost 2,000 in Iraq" and ''Bigger, Stronger, Homemade Bombs Now to Blame for Half of US Deaths." A nearby graphic -- ''The Toll" -- divided the 2,000 deaths by type of military service -- active duty, National Guard, and Reserves.
...

But that isn't a message Big Media cares to emphasize. Hostile to the war and to the administration conducting it, the nation's leading news outlets harp on the negative and pessimistic, consistently underplaying all that is going right in Iraq. Their fixation on the number of troops who have died outweighs their interest in the cause for which those fallen heroes fought -- a cause that advanced with the ratification of the new constitution.
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Read the whole thing.

Politics is Short Sighted

The continuous attacks on the Bush administration over the war in Iraq are political games being played with the lives of the Iraqi people, US soldiers and the citizens of this great country. Look at this little collection of from 1998 and tell me why we shouldn't be united in completing our goal to rid the world of terrorism.
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(11) On August 14, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-235, which declared that `the Government of Iraq is in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations' and urged the President `to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations.'...

It is the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq's transition to democracy by providing immediate and substantial humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, by providing democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals, and by convening Iraq's foreign creditors to develop a multilateral response to Iraq's foreign debt incurred by Saddam Hussein's regime.

***********

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton. - (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, October 9, 1998

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This is not President Bush's war. This is America's war, started by the American government, started to protect the American people, started long before George W. arrived in the white house. We need America to finish the fight. Politics is poisoning the war. Iran is a threat. Syria is a threat. And how deterred can they feel when they see such a divided foe? The anti-war, anti-democratic-Iraq forces of the democratic party are inspiring the terrorists who are killing US soldiers and innocent Iraqi people every day. We need to win this war. Politics stands in the way.

And you thought it only happened in America

"Jacques Chirac Doesn't Care about Black People."

Riots in Paris Suburb caused by two teenage boys who were electricuted while running away from the police.

I Love Pols

And Polls. Go here and vote for or against the new Supreme Court Nomination. Then see how other Geoffoshpere viewers voted! (Note: after you vote, you don't need to enter an e-mail. There's a link at the bottom to skip it.)

Hugh Hewitt's Poll Link

Where's the outrage?

I know it's not US soldiers putting panties on terrorist heads, but don't you think we ought to be aware of acts like this?

"...assailants in black beheaded three teenage Christian girls."

"The victims were identified as Yarni Sambue (15) Interesia Morangke (16) and Alfita Paulina (19). The survivor has been identified as Noviana Malewa, who is currently in intensive care at a nearby hospital.

The bodies of the girls were left at the site of the attack near a cocoa plantation. The heads were found at separate locations two hours later by residents, said Adj. Comr. Rais Adam, the Central Sulawesi Police spokesman.

One of the heads was found near a church."

Where's the coverage? Where are your Senetors, now? This is the enemy! Chopping of teenage girls heads! Keep your eye on the ball. This the War on Terror.

"Hello?!" -T. Kennedy

Shouldn't this be a bigger headline than Scooter's non-espionage inditement, or Exxon profits?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a conference on Wednesday Oct. 26, 2005 in Tehran entitled 'The World without Zionism.' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel should be 'wiped off the map'....

This is why it's a little scary to me.

"The fact that Iran has had for years a clandestine nuclear weapons program makes the Iranian statements about eliminating Israel all that more serious," said government spokesman Dore Gold

The President of Iran! Not some guy on the street or just some far out member of the government. The President said this. If the President of Iran says this, don't you this there's something behind it? Like a next step? I do. And it scares me.