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Middle East Conflict: How Much Breaking News Can CNN Have?

Sheesh. Even Fox’s Shep Smith was taking shots at CNN today live on Studio B for the unending Breaking News banner that I think Anderson Cooper must have mandated in his contract! Paula Zahn took up the first half of her show with Lebanon evacuee interviews (I swear, my neighbors are going to think I’m crazy (they know, they know) for all the yelling I am doing at the TV about this.) Really CNN, is all this focus on the complaints of those who CHOSE to be in Lebanon truly necessary? What’s more, the Pentagon is considering sending Marines in helicopters over Hezbollah-held territory to pick up those Americans who are dispersed throughout Lebanon and can’t get to Beirut. As a friend said, "On one hand, good to rescue folks, Americans, in danger. But on the other hand, it really puts Marines in danger, too." (Thanks Betsy, couldn’t have expressed that better myself!) One does wonder what will happen to the conflict if Hezbollah fires on US helicopters....

Meanwhile, the Israelis have sent special forces into Lebanese held territory (about 20 miles over the border) and then dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker they believe Hezbollah leaders were hiding in. Hezbollah says that none of its members were harmed, and fired at least a 100 rockets into Israel and hit Nazareth for the first time. Two Arab boys were killed there, and now the Lebanese Prime Minister is imploring for help to stop the bombing in Lebanon on the basis of the potential humanitarian crisis as approximately 500,000 have been forced to leave their homes. Here in the US, Condi Rice isn’t expected to go to the Middle East until early next week, so bombing continues unabated and for the first time, bombs fell in a wealthy section of Beirut. The Israeli attack was carried out with precision, but one imagines that those with money won’t be too happy about this latest development. It’s always better if it’s happening in someone else’s yard.

I have noticed the overwhelming coverage of the war, the casualties, the bomb count, and the status of American evacuees, but only one paragraph in any of the articles I read deals with demands and negotiations at all. It would appear that Israel’s got unofficial sanction, even from Arab countries who typically would back other Arabs, to continue bomb the burkas out of Lebanon unimpeded. Very little today was said of Iran (except for yesterday’s statement about Iran’s Hizbollah organization having 2000 recruits ready to be armed and attack Israeli and American interests anywhere) and Syria - and they didn’t appear on some of the American broadcast media as they have in the last several days. Is this the calm before the storm?

Technorati Tags: Current Affairs, Fox News, Shep Smith, Anderson Cooper, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Evacuation, Hezbollah

US Evacuation of Americans in Lebanon: Whose Personal Responsibility Is This, Really?

I’ve been watching the cable news this evening, and currently CNN’s Anderson Cooper has started his broadcast with the plight of Americans currently "trapped" in Lebanon; an estimated 25,000 Americans are there. What’s been very overt tonight is CNN’s coverage of these folks, and how frustrated they are at how slowly they believe the effort is being handled by the US government, and the not-so-vague allusions to FEMA’s response for Katrina. They complain that they are unable to get through to the US Embassy in Beirut for updates and they don’t know what’s going on. There’s also sensitivity about Americans having to repay the government for getting them out - at $200 a person, either at time of departure or signature on a promissory note. (Apparently this is being rescinded by the Bush administration, per Fox News at 9PM this evening.)

These comparisons to the handling of the Katrina disaster are completely and utterly ridiculous; if I’m not mistaken, the State Department has always warned Americans travelling to Lebanon that events can get out of hand in a hurry there and anyone who traveled to Lebanon should have read the State Department’s May 2, 2006 travel advisory which was readily available on the State Department’s website. How can people, who willingly went to a country known for its instability, blame the US government for their response to get them out? Well, it doesn’t help that the State Department posted this on their Travel Advisory section of their website July 13th:

"This Travel Warning is being updated to alert American citizens that, due to ongoing security concerns in Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy has been granted authorized departure status. Family members and non-emergency American employees have permission to depart Lebanon. The Department of State urges American citizens to defer travel to Lebanon. This supersedes the Travel Warning issued on May 2, 2006. "

As any employer would, the US, who assigns embassy personnel to their foreign posts, must keep their promise to employees: anything happens in a foreign country, we’ll get your family out of there first and if your job is deemed non-emergency, you’re allowed to go too. This, my friends, is totally reasonable. These people represent our government in places we might not be too happy to go, and they do it every single day. Can you imagine the US trying to evacuate some 25,000 Americans out of Lebanon at once? Can’t happen: first, Beirut’s airport is blasted to bits, and contrary to popular thought, Cypress and their infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle the traffic of all the Americans, much less all the other countries who are doing the same thing at the same time with their citizens. Like it or not, a staged evacuation is totally correct and is necessary to get people out in an orderly fashion.

This $200 evacuation charge is a pittance when you think of the fact that people CHOSE to go to Lebanon, even with travel advisories. I understand fear, but I’m sorry: if the Israelis are really targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, would that not be your responsibility and those you visit to make sure you aren’t in the vicinity of them? If you have enough money to purchase a plane ticket to Lebanon and stay, one would assume you have enough to pay a small fee if you wished to leave that badly. The words patience and appreciation might apply here, if you’re truly that frightened.

Note to State Department: If you really mean to stage the evacuations, for crying out loud, communicate it to the people who want to leave. Thus far, this looks like a chess match. One could speculate that at the expense of putting Americans at risk, you’d chose to save face by trickling Americans out of Lebanon (rather than a crisis exodus scenario) for the Israelis, who profess not to be targeting civilians and to show that as long as you’re not around Hezbollah, you’re perfectly safe. You can’t mean to do that, do you?

Update 11:15PM: Israel has ground troops in Lebanon and then I also found this blogger who believes some of the Americans coming back from Lebanon are Hezbollah supporters. And then there’s this, which while probably true about the dwindling supplies in Lebanon and destroyed infrastructure, borders on hysterics that Hezbollah would take US citizens as hostages. No, I don’t think so - that would pull Iran squarely into the picture and they truly don’t want that - they like being the spider spinning the web. It’s very passive-aggressive this way.

Technorati Tags: Breaking News, Current Affairs, Lebanon, Evacuations, Israel, Beirut, Cypress, State Department, Travel

Syria: We Opened Our Borders To Americans Without Visas

CNN’s Paula Zahn is currently interviewing the Syria ambassador to the US, and a surprising development: Syria has opened its borders to American civilians "no visas required" to leave Lebanon. This might be welcome news to people like chef Anthony Bourdain and his crew from The Travel Channel’s "No Reservations" who all flew to Beirut to film an episode of the series last week and got stranded when Israel bombed the airport. The New York Post’s PageSix reports that Bourdain commented that the "mojitos are great" and professes that the Lebanese people are "really, really nice" and that most Lebanese he’s met have professed their embarrassment of Hezbollah actions in their country. Then again, maybe they know he’s not picky about what he eats - including the still-beating heart of a snake. (That’s not for shock value, it’s true.) There are an estimated 25,000 American citizens in Lebanon, and while no evacuations have been ordered for them, they are being asked to keep in contact with the US embassy there.

During the day today, Hezbollah was 1-1 in shooting rockets as Israeli warships. While they tagged one, the other they attempted to bomb didn’t go nearly as well - they missed and hit an Egyptian ship. This happened after Israel bombed Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut and also targeted the Hezbollah militant group leader’s own home. Hezbollah is now declaring that if Israel wants open war, they’re ready and they’ll take their retaliation to Israel’s soil in Haifa and, as they say, "beyond". This isn’t so interesting, since they have been launching rockets towards the northern part of Israel for the last several days already - they’ve just named a city to target. The truly mysterious event that happened today involved the US brokering a deal for Israel to not bomb one of recently repaired Beirut airport runways, so that a plane carrying the Lebanese Prime Minister and 5 other planes could take off. Not surprisingly, Israel bombed the hell of the runway afterwards. About the only news worthy note about Palestine is the fact that militants there forced open a gate at the Egyptian border, allowing Palestinians trapped in Egypt when fighting commenced to go home. Unfortunately, Israel believes that their soldier Hamas is holding could be smuggled into Egypt through the same gate.

Back here at home, the Dow has dropped 400 points and the price of crude oil has risen to above $77 per barrel due to the tensions in the Middle East. Most analysts say that should the price reach $100 a barrel, Americans will be paying $4 per gallon.

Update 9:22pm: On Larry King Live at the moment, the Lebanese advisor to the Prime Minister of that country wants to have dialog with Israel, but since they don’t recognize Israel as a state, they have to have that dialog through "other means." Seems to me if you wanted to save your people from all this bombing, you might forego that view and start speaking directly to them whether you recognize Israel as a state or not. They’re bombing you back 20 years and counting...

Technorati Tags: Breaking News, Current Affairs, Syria, Dow, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Anthony Bourdain, CNN

Bombs Hit Trains in India 7/11/06

The death toll in India continues to rise in India.

BOMBS HIT BOMBAY TRAINS DURING RUSH HOUR 

High alert...

Over 160 Dead in Blasts... 

Mumbai Blasts Kill at Least 142 People, Injure 450 (Update3)

Bombs Explode on Trains in India, Killing Scores

7 explosions rock commuter trains in Mumbai, India; over 100 ...

118 Killed in Siberian Airplane Crash

Link: 118 Killed in Siberian Airplane Crash

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian passenger plane skidded off a rain-slicked runway early Sunday and plowed through a concrete barrier, bursting into flames. At least 118 people were killed and about 30 still unaccounted for, officials said.

Ken Lay, 64 Dies of Heart Attack

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, who was convicted of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history, has died of a heart attack in Colorado. He was 64.

BREITBART.COM - Enron Founder Kenneth Lay Dies at 64

(via DRUDGE REPORT 2006®)

Crack in Foam May Delay or Cancel Shuttle Flight

Well with 1 day to go before a new scheduled launch, another issue may delay or cancel a launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Engineers have found a crack in the foam insulation on the external fuel tank. Yet again we see disagreement in the ranks within NASA. Senior level managers again laying out options that would allow flight. Please visit Spaceflight Now for continuous updates.

Engineers inspecting the shuttle Discovery’s external tank following Sunday’s launch scrub found a crack in the tank’s foam insulation near a bracket holding a 17-inch oxygen feed line in place. Some engineers believe the crack must be repaired but senior managers say a variety of options are on the table, from fly as is to making repairs. As of this writing, no decisions have been made about how to proceed and it’s not known what impact the work might have on plans to make a third attempt to launch Discovery Tuesday. Engineers also found a small piece of foam insulation resting on the surface of Discovery’s mobile launch platform that may be associated with the crack. The crack is located near a bracket toward the top of the hydrogen section of the external tank that holds the liquid oxygen feedline in place. It is not yet known what might have caused the crack, although extreme temperature differences because of the presence of super-cold propellants could have played a role. "We’ve got a crack on the feedline bracket area at the top of the LOX feedline where it attaches to the hydrogen tank," said NASA spokeswoman June Malone. "It’s the top bracket. I heard four to five inches (long). I don’t know that we’ve not seen this before. The feedline has to flex, it has some bare metal there by design, you’ve got differences in temperatures." Updates will be posted here as information becomes available.
Spaceflight Now | STS-121 Shuttle Report | Crack found in Discovery external tank insulation

(via Spaceflight Now)

Technorati Tags: Space shuttle, Foam, Discovery, Nasa, Space

Palestinians set Tuesday morning deadline

This looks to be a 24 hour timetable from the Palestinian militant groups.

The three Palestinian militant groups that captured an Israeli soldier gave Israel until Tuesday morning to release Palestinian prisoners or "pay the consequences." The statement, which was faxed to news agencies on Monday, did not say what those consequences would be.
BREITBART.COM - Soldier’s Captors Set Deadline for Israel

More from Reuters:

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militant groups that abducted an Israeli soldier gave Israel until 0300 GMT on Tuesday to meet their demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners, threatening unspecified consequences if it refuses.

"Military Communique 3" issued on Monday by Hamas’s armed wing and two other factions said: "If the enemy does not agree to our humanitarian demands ... we will regard this case as closed."

In previous statements, the groups demanded that Israel, as a first stage, release Palestinian women and youths in its prisons in exchange for information about Corporal Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by gunmen in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Palestinian militants issue ultimatum to Israel

Technorati Tags: Palestinian, Ultimatium, Isreal, Isreali, Gilad Shalit

Television producer Aaron Spelling dies - Jun 23, 2006

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Aaron Spelling, a onetime movie bit player who turned to television production and created a massive number of hit series, from the vintage "Charlie's Angels" and "Dynasty" to "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place," died Friday, his publicist said. He was 83.

Spelling died at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke on June 18, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki.

Spelling's other hit series included "Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Burke's Law," "The Mod Squad," "Starsky and Hutch," "T.J. Hooker," "Matt Houston," "Hart to Hart" and "Hotel." He kept his hand in 21st-century TV with series including "7th Heaven" and "Summerland."

He also produced more than 140 television movies. Among the most notable: "Death Sentence" (1974), Nick Nolte's first starring role; "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (1976), John Travolta's first dramatic role; "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981), which starred Jennifer Jason Leigh.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Spelling provided series and movies exclusively for ABC and is credited for the network's rise to major status. Jokesters referred to it as "The Aaron Broadcasting Company."

Link: CNN.com - Television producer Aaron Spelling dies - Jun 23, 2006.

Polk guilty of killing therapist husband - Jun 16, 2006

Jury convicts Susan Polk of second degree murder. She was accused of murdering her husband in 2002.

Link: CNN.com - Polk guilty of killing therapist husband - Jun 16, 2006.