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The war in Iraq has ended. We are at peace with Iran and the Israeli's and Palestinians are in perfect harmony living side by side. The genocide in Darfur has ceased after years and for once we are experiencing world peace.

You would think that was the case listening to the traditional media. CNN, MSNBC and FOX is on non stop Anna Nicole coverage. CNN actually started talking about Iraq this morning, but broke into that with their "breaking news". What was that news that trumped the war engulfing the nation? "The coroner has started the autopsy on Anna Nicole". Give me a break!

The really amazing part is the part that is so obvious. These news outlets are using this death to try and raise their ratings, as they always do. This is the most disrespectful thing that can be done with someone who died.  Now the big question is "who gets her money?" Hey idiots - who cares!

I talked to a lot of people I know last night and everyone of them was fed up with this coverage. They feel the same way I do. She is dead - it's tragic but it is over. Now move on in the news cycle. The media won't hardly mention a soldiers death in Iraq anymore, but let a model die or an astronaut get arrested in diapers and they have a proverbial  circle jerk over it.

Is it any wonder why we are looked at so negatively in the world? Everyone else faces serious problems, yet we try to hide them by our celebrities lives. Of course this is the plan of the media. Real Americans are still concerned about everything else.

At least we admit it now:

U.S. military officers offered their condolences on Monday to an Iraqi family south of Baghdad in a rare admission of error after killing two innocent Iraqis in an airstrike last Tuesday.

A U.S. military statement released on January 31 said two "insurgents" out of a four-man team were killed as they were trying to plant a roadside bomb in the town of Mahmudiya.

Calling the incident a "tragic accident," the officers on Monday handed out $2,500 to the family for each man killed.

I am sure that $2500 made it all better for them too. Yeah right. This is the byproduct of a miitary who has had their tours extended numerous times and is ready to go home. With Bush's surge, we will certainly see more incidents like this, as well as more Haditha's.

Not really, but I am sure old Bill will use it anyway for some bullshit excuse of "how MSNBC is destroying our airwaves with their profanity". To normal people like you and me, well this is kind of funny.

(h/t Duncan)

Throughout Bush's professional life, he has ran companies into the ground and relied upon others to bail him out. Well his new business, The United States of America, is no different. He now expects the Democrats to bail his ass out on his failed fiscal policies:

When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.

Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.

"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.

Last week Congress passed a bill requiring the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices on Medicare. Bush already said he is going to veto this bill. So the Democrats try something to not only save seniors money, but also the government and Bush won't allow it.

Getting someone to prosecute corrupt politicians effectively is a hard thing, but for Bush, getting someone to not prosecute them is apparently harder:

The Bush administration has quietly asked San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, best known for her high-profile prosecutions of politicians and corporate executives, to resign her post, a law enforcement official said.

Lam, a Bush appointee who took the helm in 2002, was targeted because of job performance issues - in particular that she failed to make smuggling and gun cases a top priority, said the official, who declined to be identified because Lam has yet to step down.
Lam has had high-profile successes during her tenure, such as the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery case - but she alienated herself from bosses at the Justice Department because she is outspoken and independent, said local lawyers familiar with her policies.

When she took over, Lam made it clear that she planned to focus less on low-level smuggling cases in favor of public corruption and white collar crime, which would mean fewer but more significant prosecutions.

Yeah - because smuggling or gun cases are a far greater risk to our nation than people like Cunningham taking bribes in Congress. This sounds like another example of Bush circling the wagons.

Lake Superior State University has released their annual list of banished words and phrases. You know - those words that are over used. The list is available here for your viewing pleasure.

One phrase that didn't make the list, but should have is "Clinton did it". That has been the most over-used phrase for the past 6 years. It climaxed during the "Path to 9/11" fantasy film that aired on ABC. The voters showed they didn't buy that phrase last November, so it is now time for the right-wing pundits to retire that old phrase.

NRO:

How about Rick Santorum for the UN job? Yeah, there'd probably be a confirmation fight. And he may want to take a breather after 16 years in elected office. But it's worth thinking over.

Hell - how about Katherine Harris, George "Macaca" Allen or even Tom Delay?

(H/T Andrew Sullivan)

Raw Story brings us this:

report filed by CNN claims that former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that President Bush must accept that Iraq has descended into civil war.

"Powell says he thinks we can call it a civil war," Cable News Network's Hala Gorani, reporting from Dubai, said today.

Powell also reportedly "added if he were still heading the State Department, he probably would recommend to the Bush administration that those terms should be used in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground."

It seems like everyone is accepting the fact that Iraq is in a civil war except President Denial himself. Why is that? Well considering he is out looking for funding for his "legacy library" now, apparently he don't want to tarnish that legacy anymore. If he can hold off on calling it a civil war until 2009 then he can blame it on the next President. That has worked really well in the past - just ask Lyndon Johnson.