Grumpy Editor

'Loose lips' in Washington tip off battle plan for Iraq

 

With last Thursday’s Washington tip-off-to-the-bad-guys release of an upcoming U.S. battle plan to regain control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, Grumpy Editor recalls the heavily-guarded secret leading up to the massive invasion of Normandy --- D-Day --- on June 6, 1944 without one word leaking out, even via media.

“Loose lips sink ships,” was a top wartime phrase at the time.

Led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the giant military undertaking --- on the road to victory in Europe in World War II --- involved transporting 150,000 soldiers plus weapons, tanks and other equipment on more than 6,900 naval vessels, including 1,200 warships 100 miles across the English Channel to French beaches.  Hundreds of aircraft were involved transporting parachute regiments and dropping bombs.

So today’s military veterans and others were surprised to learn “a senior military official” outline a broad plan at a Washington news briefing that up to 25,000 U.S.-trained Iraq and Kurdish forces were preparing to launch an assault to retake Mosul in April or May.

Five Iraqi brigades as the main attack force also was mentioned along with a reserve force of three Iraqi brigades plus three brigades of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on the north and west.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, appearing on Fox News, said revealing potential plans to regain control of Mosul is “absolutely bewildering. We are aiding and abetting the enemy."   

Washington’s thinking on this:  Telegraphing details of the upcoming battle serves to weaken the resolve of Islamic fighters by indicating the military force they will face.

The Islamic fighters now have two or three months to gear up for the battle.

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Snow in Las Vegas?  Residents on the west side of Sin City woke up today to about three inches of snow on the ground.  Unlike Washington, no government offices were shuttered.  That compared with a storm, leaving 4.7 inches of snow, that closed government offices in Washington on Tuesday, giving federal workers four straight days off including President’s Day.  But Tuesday turned out to be clear under a bright blue sky…Meanwhile, frigid weather in the East resulted in most of Niagara Falls being frozen over --- and a temporary halt to mention of global warming/climate change…Some newspapers over the weekend tired of running photos of U.S. cities under snow.  So they jumped on a Reuters photo of a man sketching a large heart in the snow --- in far-off Amman, Jordan.  It was from a storm that hit the Middle East, bringing 10 inches of snow in Jerusalem…A half-day story?  The New York Daily News was one of a few news outlets (along with Britain’s BBC) to report ISIS burned 45 people to death in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, according to the police chief .  Silence after that…Gotta watch those Tea Party folks.  The Washington Times reported a new Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment circulated this month focuses on the threat of right-wing sovereign citizen extremist groups in the U.S., adding that “some law enforcement groups say the threat is equal to, and occasionally greater than, the threat from Islamic extremist groups"…With more journalists looking for jobs, as newsroom staffs dwindle, the Los Angeles Times hired an illegal immigrant writer to create a section of its web site devoted to race, immigration and multiculturalism…State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, who has raised some Washington reporters’ eyebrows, was named White House communications director…In another Gannett Co. newsroom reshuffling, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, said the newspaper's reporters must apply for new positions to “revamp” coverage and ultimately put fewer resources into production…Smart move?  As their plan to “counterbalance” a drop in viewership, cable TV executives --- in seeking more advertising dollars --- came up with compression technology (speeding up fare such as movies) that allows squeezing in additional commercials --- which should send more viewers elsewhere.

Gearing up for a media tour is bouncy Miss P, from Vancouver, British Columbia.  A sexy newly-discovered Hollywood babe?  Nope.  Miss P is a beagle that won the Best in Show award at the 139^th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York.

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Sissy, a dog, takes amazing route to bedside of owner

 

In getting readers/viewers minds off glum news such as blizzards, terrorists and taxes, most media missed a heart-warming story of Sissy the miniature schnauzer which, amazingly, trotted 20 blocks of city streets at night from her Cedar Rapids, Iowa home in a successful effort to visit her hospitalized owner, notes Grumpy Editor.

How the dog did it, including walking through two automatic doors and along corridors at Mercy Medical Center, had the town talking. 

Security cameras caught it all.  Cedar Rapids TV station KCRG broke the story.

Nancy Franck, in the hospital after surgery, and her husband, Dale, were concerned when Sissy unexpectedly disappeared from home.

But later a surprised Mercy security officer “looked up and there was this dog that was just running across the lobby.”

The security guard used the dog’s tags to call Dale Franck at home.  This led to information that the dog's owner was in the medical center.

Happy dog and surprised patient were reunited.

For more details, likely route and video of Sissy trotting through medical center’s automatic doors and along corridors, go here.

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Proposed White House regulation of the Internet “mimics ObamaCare” in process and substance, and would lead to “billions of dollars in new taxes,” warned Ajit Pai, a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission…U.S. Marines, departing Yemen last week, boarded contracted aircraft, not U.S. military planes…Yale University students concerned about global warming postponed a planned protest slated for the weekend because of “unfavorable weather conditions.”  Translation:  frigid, snowy weather…With China now one of the world’s top two economies, a U.S. State Department program provided most of $12.3 million in foreign aid for China last year with $6.8 million more slated this year…A proposed tax-hike surprise in a state noted for low taxes:  In connection with the ignoring of a reelection campaign pledge by Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to keep hands off more taxes, three Republican state senators, including the majority leader, in a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor on Feb. 12,  defended Sandoval’s proposal to hike taxes to increase funding for education…Also involving Nevada:  Under a $20.2 million contract, the Silver State went to far-off Ohio to select a firm to market Nevada to tourists…In another visit to the dentist, Boris, a 29-year-old polar bear at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash. underwent three-hours of surgery Friday to extract an abscessed tooth.  Boris, one of the oldest polar bears in North America, in the past underwent multiple root canals…A Rasmussen Reports survey found that while 60 percent of Americans  termed news reported by media as at least somewhat trustworthy (including seven percent who think it is very trustworthy) 38 percent did not trust the news media…Southern California Edison Co. expected to lay off hundreds of employees and hire less-costly foreign workers.  Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said the Edison layoffs are part of a growing trend of companies that use H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers for jobs that could be filled by Americans…In another case of a San Francisco TV news crew being attacked, a KTVU female reporter and a cameraman were assaulted by two masked men.  Gear was taken just after a live report in Hayward.  The news crew was shaken up but uninjured.

 

EARTH-SHAKING NEWS.  Among the top dozen What’s News items on the front page of  The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 11:  “Jon Stewart will retire as host of ‘The Daily Show,’ Comedy Central said.” 

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“The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading,” declared Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup Inc. in an opinion piece on the company’s website, observed Grumpy Editor.

That statement didn’t rattle major media, despite the fact it came from the head of an 80-year-old research-based, global performance-management consulting company, noted for its Gallup Poll, with 30 offices in almost two dozen countries.

“Right now,” continued Clifton, “we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is ‘down’ to 5.6 percent. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media love a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.”

Clifton pointed out, “If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job --- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks --- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed.”   Currently, he added, “as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed.”

He said few Americans know that an unemployed person performing one hour of work per week and paid at least $20 is “not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6 percent.” Also, those with degrees working 10 hours part time but wanting full-time work are termed severely underemployed --- and also not counted in the 5.6 percent, he explained.

“Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck,” said Clifton.  “Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44 percent, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older.”

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITOR MISSED THESE…

 At the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Barack Obama greeted the Dalai Lama as “a good friend” and “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion and inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings.”  In reporting that, the Washington press corps overlooked the Tibetan spiritual leader’s departure from the White House five years ago when he was ushered out a side door (some referred to it as back door), walking past big piles of bagged trash in the snow…NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams’ false claim of being on a helicopter forced down by Iraqi rocket fire in 2003 was broken by Travis Tritten, Stars and Stripes reporter in Washington, D.C…With saber rattling in Washington, the U.S. Army has fewer than 500,000 active-duty soldiers for the first time in 10 years…The Washington Post reported 64 percent of investigative journalists surveyed by Pew Research Center and Columbia's Tow Center for Digital Journalism believe the U.S. government has "probably collected data" on their communications with the number rising to 71 percent from investigative reporters who cover national security, foreign affairs or the federal government…In response to the previous day’s move by Washington to revive long-stalled six-nation talks on denuclearization, North Korea on Wednesday ruled out resuming dialogue with the "gangster-like" U.S. and vowed to respond to any U.S. aggression with nuclear strikes and cyber warfare.  That follows similar lines heard since the mid 1950s…Dramatic footage of the low-flying TransAsia aircraft that hit a highway barrier and crashed into a river in Taiwan, killing at least 40, was captured on a dashboard video camera --- with no print or broadcast media crediting the vehicle’s driver…The 113-year-old Waurika News-Democrat, one of Oklahoma’s oldest newspapers, printed its final edition Wednesday.  The weekly’s management cited "difficult economic conditions"…TV news anchor gets an exclusive.  Savannah, Ga. WSAV’s Russ Riesinger was shopping at a PetSmart when a man walked in, announced he was robbing the store, grabbed cash from the registers and took off.  But not far.  Riesinger chased the man and held him until police arrived…Ouch!  The University of California will require incoming students in 2017 to be screened for tuberculosis and vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, meningococcus, tetanus and whooping cough…The Internal Revenue Service said budget cuts this tax season resulted in a limited amount of federal tax forms and instruction booklets usually placed in libraries and post offices…Eastman Kodak Co. said it will continue to manufacture motion picture film.

Oops!  A front page Wall Street Journal story on license plate tracking placed Nevada among states that border Mexico.

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Which shakes up folks most: global warming or asteroid?

 

As another blizzard smacks the freezing Northeast today after dumping up to a foot of snow in the Midwest, Grumpy Editor reminds that while the focus of many  --- from Al Gore to the White House --- continues to be on global warming (climate change), overlooked by most media is last week’s mountainous asteroid that made what was considered a close pass to Earth. 

Asteroid BL86 (so labeled by sky watchers), about five football fields wide, zoomed within 745,000 miles of Earth at 35,000 m.p.h. last Monday. 

What most folks forget is that a key theory holds that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.

“The dinosaurs probably broiled to death” following impact of an asteroid --- probably seven or eight miles wide --- that ejected a dust plume that spread around Earth and ignited forests, says Jay Melosh, a planetary physicist at Purdue University, in a story on meteorites in the February issue of Popular Science magazine.

(A meteorite is a solid piece of space rock or iron that originally was an asteroid or a comet.)

Popular Science points out if a collision (a meteorite impact on Earth) exceeds 100,000 million tons, it means “a catastrophe larger than any in human history,” adding, “a meteorite a mile in diameter might send enough pulverized rock into the stratosphere to block out sunlight and cause global cooling.”

Meanwhile, among global warming alarms over the past few days:

Less ice triggers volcanoes.  Melting of Icelandic ice caps causes decreased pressure on underlying rocks, thus increasing the chance of volcanic activity, finds a new study.

Aspen’s climate could be a lot like that of Amarillo by 2100.  So warns Gina McCarthy, Environmental Protection Agency administrator who was in the Colorado city last month.

Noting this, The Weekly Standard calculates:  “For the climate of Aspen to resemble that of Amarillo, a temperature swing of 15 degrees and a 13-foot drop in annual snowfall would need to take place over the next 85 years.  Even the most catastrophic models of global temperature change in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change do not predict a temperature increase of 15 degrees.”     

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Editorial-advertising partition drops.  Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair, Golf and Wired, among others, says its editors would be available through 23 Stories, its new advertising arm, to consult with advertisers and help them create articles and images…Marking India’s Republic Day in New Delhi last week, President Barack Obama refers to himself 118 times in a 33-minute speech, tallies Paula Bolyard at PJ Media…California’s new regulation calling for larger room for egg-laying chickens results in average price for a dozen jumbo eggs jumping to $3.16 from $1.18 a year ago…Among pitching tactics at the Feb. 10 PRNews Writing Workshop:  When writing news releases, “think like the journalist and bloggers you are pitching”--- which may be difficult for some who do not have newsroom experience…Breaking news:  CBS News anchor Scott Pelley, in interviewing House Speaker John Boehner, asks: “Do you practice that scowl?”…With an eye on cutting costs, Sears Holdings lays off 115 corporate workers, including 100 at its headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill…The Washington Times reports 1,000 of the 36,000 illegal immigrant criminals the government released in 2013 have gone on to commit other crimes.

Good idea.  The Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald, a Gannett publication, through public meetings is seeking area residents’ input for “something that needs investigation, a story worth telling” or sharing insight on the state of the community.  Nora Hertel, watchdog reporter, is searching for problems and solutions.

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