The word for today is pernicious
Tuesday, Oct. 05, 2004 - 11:01

I'm so boring, I'm even planning to watch the vice presidential debates tonight. I would have puked at myself a few years ago for that.

But here are some recent news briefs that I found interesting:

Israel to buy 5,000 bombs from US
9/22/04
The United States will sell Israel nearly 5,000 smart bombs in one of the largest weapons deals between the allies in years, Israeli military officials said Tuesday.
...
Israel's announcement came after the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible military sale to Israel worth as much as $319 million.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Tuesday that funding for the sale will come from U.S. military aid to Israel.

U.S. close to hitting debt ceiling
10/5/04
The government should hit the national debt's $7.4 trillion ceiling this month, and the Bush administration told Congress again Monday it should raise the limit.
...
The government's debt was $7.364 trillion as of Friday, $18.3 billion from the ceiling.
Congress last boosted the limit in May 2003.

Fox News apologizes for posting fake Kerry story
10/2/04
The chief political correspondent for Fox News wrote a ficitious story Friday referring to Sen. John F. Kerry as a "metrosexual" who does manicures that was temporarily posted on the network's Web site.
In a piece titled "The Metrosexual and the Cowboy," correspondent Carl Cameron quoted Kerry telling supporters at a rally in Tampa, Fla.: "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!"
At another point, Cameron quoted Kerry as saying, "I'm metrosexual - he's a cowboy." ...
Fox News said the piece was a joke that accidentally ended up on the Web site for a period of time on Friday. Later in the day, the Web site posted an editor's note apologizing for the piece
"The item was based on a reporter's partial script that had been written in jest and should not have been posted or broadcast," the note read. "We regret the error, which occurred because of fatigue and bad judgment, not malice."

So the U.S. is buying weapons from itself for Israel. Why? And the deficit, which didn't exist four years ago, is almost seven and a half trillion dollars. I can't even imagine that, and I have nothing to say.

And then, Fox News was so indignant about the CBS News thing, so up-in-arms about how terrible it was for CBS to try to influence the election and how it was proof positive of their liberal bias, all the while claiming that Fox News was balanced and fair. Well.

So about the CBS News thing: something was reported based on information that turned out to be false, and now people are calling for Dan Rather to be terminated, to be held accountable. But the people saying that apparently don't see the ironic parallel between that and the war in Iraq, and reporting something that turns out to be unsubstantiated is a little less pernicious than starting a war. The Daily Show is the only place I saw that pointed out.

I love Jon Stewart.