Now THAT's how you get the whole picture

I posted a couple days ago about how the media, in a need to sensationalize everything, crops and zooms to make things seem like more than they are. Gateway Pundit is famous for showing the whole picture regardless of what message it sends.

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A massive protest was held in Caracas on Wednesday against the Chavez government's removal of a leading opposition TV station, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV).

Signs of Progress

Stories that count are surfacing. Confederate Yankee notes two little-big stories.

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It is this kind of working within the community that makes this one small story in a large war worth noting.

The "neighborhood watch" that captured this cache is composed of 500 men from various tribes in the Taji area that once supported al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgency. As Dave Kilcullen notes above, it is the human terrain that matters, and the fact that these men are now actively working against al Qaeda and the insurgency, are attempting to join the political process and the Iraqi security forces, that is far more important than an increasing body count.

Step Back to See the Whole picture

Michael Totten posts about the media sensationalization just to get TV rating. How can we be informed when the news "makes" news?

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Hardly any reporters ever bother to write paragraphs like these, preferring instead to wallow in the sensational because they need a “story.”

Game On

Dispite Pelosi and Reid's race to lose the war in Iraq for their political gain, the new strategy in Iraq is moving into the next phase. The troop increase has been completed. The action will now begin.

Bill Roggio, Iraq Report
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With the last U.S. combat brigade in place for the surge, General David Petraeus stated today that combat operations have begun in the Baghdad belts. "Now for the first time we are going to a couple of the really key areas in the belts from which ... al Qaeda has sallied forth with car bombs, additional fighters and so forth," General David Petraeus told reporters in Baghdad. "In the last 24 hours we have launched a number of different offensive operations in the Baghdad belts," Petraeus said.

Boring Story

Nothing to report here. That's why it's not in the headlines.

Pelosi and Reid have claimed that the surge is a failure. You know better, because you hear the stories from the front lines. Bill Roggio continues to tirelessly bring us the situation on the ground in Iraq. He brings the news regardless of it's sensationality. I don't miss his daily reports from Iraq.

Here is a story of success - success from persistence and the surge:

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...The city of Fallujah is the only city in Anbar province where the Iraqi Army owns the battlespace. The city is run by Iraqis, and has an elected mayor, 20 members on the city council and a police force the works closely with the Iraqi Army and U.S. forces in the region. Fallujah now has an estimated 400,000 residents as people continue to return to the city, and business is beginning to thrive, Col Simcock noted.

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Col Simcock explained that RCT-6 is now focusing on securing the four regions, using the additional forces allotted in the "surge" to provide a permanent presence and establishing the conditions for the Iraqi security forces to assume control over the battlespace. Combined with the Iraqi Army units and Provincial security forces in his area of operations, Col Simcock stated he has enough forces to get the job done.

The bottom line on immigration

I have been struggling with the immigration debate. I try to keep an open mind. And what I hear the immigration bill proponents saying, I can understand.

I believe those supporting the bill are saying that:
No matter home the illegal immigrants got her, they are here and they are contributing (for the most part) to our society. We all benefit from them whether we know it or not. Do you eat vegetables? Have you had construction done or been in a building constructed in the bast 10 years? If so you have probably benefited from lower cost.

I'm also concerned about the opponent's arguments:
* Why do we need a new law? The laws are already on the books.
* Build the wall you said you would build before you make another law to build a wall.
* They broke the law. They are criminals. They must not be rewarded. These are not the people we want in our country. And there a lines on people who are waiting to do it legally.
* Mass acceptance of this demographic will change the culture of our nation. Many are not people who have come here to become American. They want to make money, but be "home". This will be the end of our nation as we know it.

But what worries me the most is the speed and complexity of the bill. Government is never fast. Government is never in agreement. Why so on this bill?

This post at the National Review suggests a reason... and a bottom line:

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And we all know what will happen on the enforcement front: Congress will take out a loan to buy amnesty, promising payment in the form of enforcement. Within weeks, however, Congress will file for moral bankruptcy, and get to keep their amnesty while never paying back a dime's worth of enforcement…