>Dennis Perrin asks:
>
> > Pure State Television. Karl Rove could barely
> > improve on this, and I wonder if local news
> > everywhere is this bad.
>
>Oh God, is it ever. Someone from Western Pennsylvania gets killed in Iraq
>about once a week, and there are stories about these families frequently.
>The best reactions that I have seen to this phenomenon come from my
>not-quite-in-laws (I am not married, but might as well be); my partner and
>her parents are from Bosnia and were in Sarajevo at the height of the
>siege. Anyway, every time a military family loses a loved one and goes on
>TV to talk about how "proud" they are of their departed son or daughter,
>- - - - -
>John Lacny
There is a little hope. A local (to me in the Midwest now) father of someone killed in the 9/11 attacks was put on TV and quoted in the local newspaper as saying he would "vote for Saddam Hussein before he would vote for Bush". I don't recall in what context he made the statement recently but it was fun to watch some people make excuses for his outrageous statement by appealing to reason of grief struck parents being incoherent. As if no reasonable person could hate Bush.
John Thornton