Thanks, Jon

First, a caveat:

I do not regularly get my news from The Daily Show.

I do, however, sometimes get a jolt of information about the news from Jon Stewart & co. This happened a couple of days ago when the lead story on TDS was about the nearly complete lack of coverage by the major news networks ~ cable and otherwise ~ regarding the recent report put out by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Evidently, instead of reporting on the administration's exaggerations, omissions and shameless propagandizing in building a case for the Iraq war, the networks and cable news shows chose to run with the sexy kerfuffle over two dykes kissing in a ballpark.

Even my dear Gabi, who listens to NPR all the time, had not heard the news. I had, because I read my news online and somehow had the right combination of news sources plugged into my Google Reader.

So, for those of you who missed this story, here's a couple of choice links:

Senate Finds Pre-War Bush Claims Exaggerated, False
By Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Jun 5 (IPS) - Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad's ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday.

The Truth About the War (editorial, NY Times, June 6)

A new report shows clearly that President Bush should have known that important claims he made about Iraq did not conform with intelligence reports.

And, just in case the news networks failed in their reporting role vis-a-vis the shenanigans the administration is pulling in Iraq, here's another story that is more than a little noteworthy.

From the British paper, The Independent, US Issues Threat to Iraq's $50bn Foreign Reserves in Military Deal, by Patrick Cockburn, Friday, June 6, 2008

The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.