Sago didn't do much to reduce our appetite for coal and, among the general public, while it may have engendered some general. undefined support for stricter safety regulations and enforcement, I don't really see a significant public uprising. Apathy still seems the predominant attitude and the industry still seems to drive the train with respect to industry/government interactions. The new legislation appears pretty to me to allow for business as usual with a a few minor concession--even if adequately enforced.

I'm not trying to discourage you but it's going to be pretty hard to get the public at-large actively behind the anti-war movement probably for a few more years unless something catastrophic occurs. I'm expecting the status quo to prevail at least until we have a new Administration and that might actually appease the majority to tolerate Iraq indefinitely if it is shown that the next Administration actually has some ideas about what it is doing.

When the press reports that two American soldiers have been kidnapped, they are stating facts. They are not involved in a massive propaganda campaign to convince Americans that the war is going badly. When Tony Snow claims that Americans think the war is going badly because of the way the press reports the news, he is engaged in the massive homeland propaganda campaign launched by the Bush administration. As Sidney Blumenthal recently reported, the government has been conducting psy-ops since 2004 aimed at Americans to ""Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response." This kind of deception is an example of the extent to which the Bush administration feels it must go to shore up support for the War in Iraq. The reason that the kidnapping of two soldiers is signifiance to Snow and the Bush administration, is that it undercuts their propaganda effort. The rest of us are concerned about the safety, health, and welfare of our troops in the field and at home. We are also concerned about a government that uses our tax dollars not to support the troops but to lie to us.

If I were Karl Rove, I'd be getting on the phone to that fat-ass gob of redneck snot known as Toby Keith. He's probably between Ford truck commercials right now and looking for a new jingle to fire up the hillbillies.

If it starts to look like Tony Snow's orders to downplay two missing G.I.s as nothing but business as usual, then the best way to counter the country's sympathy and anger with Bush over two human beings who are in the deepest shit, would be to make these two unfortunate guys larger than life heroes in the tradition of Audie Murphy and Sgt. York.

Toby, are you there, buddy? Why don't you whip up another instant country radio hit? I loved that "Boot-in-your-ass" thing you did a couple of years ago. That was a classic.

Maybe you could do something along the lines of Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Beret." Really hoke it up for the rubes this time. Include lots of images of American flags flappin' and bullets flying. Then go for the money shot, include the mothers at home who wait for news through the endless nights.

It just might get America all fired up and angry enough to start supporting Bush's war again.

But on second thought, maybe Rove and Bush don't want any more attention brought to their failures in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. It's too close to the fall elections.

Anyway Toby, you hang in there OK? We'll call you.

Don't worry, we are not about to call Daryl Worley instead. He really put us in a bad spot with his "Have you forgotten" (about Bin Laden) song. That thing backfired on us big time!

So wait a minute, if the US Army thinks these guys are important enough to send eight THOUSAND troops looking for them, and they've conducted AIRSTRIKES as part of the hunt, HOW is this NOT news? If the Army thinks it's a story, then the media is justly on top of it.

You have to wonder if there was a connection to the grissly displaying of Zarqawis body on tv as if he were the prize buck shot during hunting season and the capture of these troops. News reports made it sound like this was a deliberate attempt to take prisoners, and the only reason for that--assuming that arms for hostages is off the table--is for propaganda purposes. I feel for these two guys and hope they are found alive, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they end up on al-Jazeera begging for their lives.

I'm no fan of the "only a number" by Tony Snow, but at least he mentioned it. There is one very reputable national paper that didn't even think it important enough to put the figure on the front page of its online version on the day that it was reported (I even wrote and asked them why but got no answer). Does anyone else besides me believe that the MSM is more often than not intimidated by the Bush administration's continuous psychological spin that any bad news helps the terrorits?

While I sincerely hope that these to soldiers can make it back to freedom and home to their families, this capture seems to be related in a weird way to Gitmo.The invasion of Irak was illegal. That would make the troops outlaws and the treatment similar to Gitmo, unfortunate as it may be. Gitmo was sanctioned by the President upon the advice of the present Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense. The pigeons seem to be coming home to roost.