Consortium News for me, too. Although I've been slack the last two weeks, so I sent $15. Sorry! I promise to stay on the 5DF bandwagon from now on.

I had read 'em before, but I found myself re-reading the Colin Powell articles and came across this bit, which reminded of the Pentagon's reaction to the Wikileaks video (speaking of the Panama invasion): "On Dec. 24, shortly after midnight, a nine-months-pregnant Panamanian woman, Ortila Lopez de Perea, went into labor.

She was helped into the family Volkswagen which was marked by a white flag. With her husband, her mother-in-law and a neighbor, she headed to the hospital.

At a U.S. military roadblock on the Transisthmian Highway, the car stopped. The four Panamanians requested an escort, but were told that wasn't necessary. After being waved through, they drove another 500 yards to a second checkpoint.

But at this spot, young American troops mistook the speeding Volkswagen for a hostile vehicle. The soldiers opened up with a 10-second barrage of automatic rifle fire.

When the shooting ended, Lopez de Perea and her 25-year-old husband Ismael were dead. The neighbor was wounded in the stomach. The mother-in-law, though unhurt, was hysterical. The unborn baby was dead, too.

The U.S. government would acknowledge the facts, but refuse any compensation to the family. The Southern Command concluded that its investigation had found that the incident "although tragic in nature, indicate[s] that the U.S. personnel acted within the parameters of the rules of engagement in effect at that time.""

This is probably true, as it was for the helicopter pilots in the Baghdad incident. In a moral universe, this would then lead to deep soul-searching about the American way of war (or, really, war itself). In ours, it leads to the memory-hole.

Continuing on w/ the Powell retrospective, I am reminded by Parry that Joe Klein has been a complete ass for longer than I tend to remember: "In fall 1995, as the Republican presidential field took shape, Newsweek jumped back into the Powell love-fest. Columnist Joe Klein offered the insight that "the key to the race" was the recognition that "ideas are not important."

Instead of ideas, "stature is everything." Klein declared. "But if ideas don't matter, what does? Civility does.""

Okay, I'm on the bandwagon. I just kicked in $5. You can also purchase Parry's books to support the website. I've read all three and they're excellent.

Nothing like pumping via essays that excoriate the Evil Rethuglicans.

What's Parry's output criticizing the Noble Democrats?

Anything?

Or is that verboten here, the realization of the Noble Democrats being equally bad?

Unfortunately I second CF Oxtrot at 5:16. I am, in the paucity of news reporting, thankful for Perry and his investigations.

BUT, in general, we will hear about Obama for one (and other nobles), in about 5 years. And then, quite limited. Certainly never during election season. The open season for mild criticism is about 5 - 12 months post election. What little there was at sites about Dems is now quickly drying up. Elections are upon us.

Which is not to say that Perry's site is unworthy of contributions.

I am just weary of the "system" so many operate under...

That James Madison sure knew how to build a system resistant to change. Thanks a lot James.

Those who read Consortiumnews will see that Parry is reporting on the Obama administration, and he's certainly not singing a paean to it. But he's a journalist, not a theorist. Right now we're in the pause during our national "two steps back, pause and vacillate, two more steps back" Waltz. It's a lot harder to "report' on that pause, even if it is easier to comment on it.