BTW, I live in Colorado. During the blizzard, I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, then my car was hit by a bus. I know exactly how bad it was. Where was the coverage? All over the place, you just had to change the channel off of Fox News for 30 seconds to see it. I recieved many calls from family all around the country, and the world during the storm.

I am a lower middle class, public school educated, liberal.

I control the media. Oh, and fair fight? So kind of like how Bush became president without being elected by the majority vote? Yeah, because that's fair.

Oh, and yes, let's not report anything negative about the government, our society, ourselves. Let's just stick our heads in the sand and it will go away. The country would be a lot better... WTF are you smoking??

right on Michael give them hell, Libs don't care about this country, they don't care about are schools, because their kids all go to private schools. They don't care about poverty or homeless, because they don't live in it. All they care about is control, they control the media because libs can't win a fare fight. You will never see only good reported by the media because libs are nogood. I think that it is a slap in the face by the media to act like the public doesn't know bad cruel, violent, crime exists. I think we all know its out there I don't think the media should report it at all. It's like my mom and dad always say, IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING GOOD TO SAY THEN DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. This Country would be a lot better off if libs worked and earned their money for a change with their hands and backs not the mouth. By the does anyone out there no what the definition of "IS" is.

He could have produced any numbers, since I've personally seen the iraqi civilian death toll fluctuate between 10,000 and 500,000. Who cares? The point he made was still valid; The mainstream news (and the liberal population) claims it cares so much about human life, but only seems to mention it when it can help their agenda. In this case, convincing americans that the war is some horrible atrocity that the US has committed.

Anybody hear about the blizzard that hit Colorado? People died, others were stranded without electricity or heat. The blizzard was apparantly as damaging as a class 5 hurricane, but where was the coverage? All I've seen on the news was something about stranded cows.

I'm willing to believe that liberals have their hearts in the right places. They really do want to do what's right, the problem is that there are skewed versions of the different means to get to the ultimate end. Everyone always thinks they're right, and it's hard to double back and look at it from a different viewpoint.

I don't consider myself a liberal or a conservative...i like to think I'm someone who can see some good ideas from both groups and would love to see them both be able to make compromises with each other but thats not how politics goes i guess...

...so on that note i was willing to go along with this a argument until numbers were used to refute the very argument they were meant to support....I don't think you realize that if the government were left unchecked it would revert back to its Vietnam propaganda of telling the American public how well its doing in this war when its really not...the very fact that this government, (that called Saddam an emminent threat with his WMD's and Osama the most wanted man alive), hasn't talked about how WE supplied Osama with training, weapons and money during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and you can google pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Hussein in 1984 during the Iran-Iraq war as were supporting Iraq at the time. We have helped to create our own enemies.

The hypocrisy of government demands that we make sure to bring to light the atrocities of war or they'll gladly lie to the people with a smile on their faces....

It dosen't matter witch is more dangerous both have been taken over by
fanatics who place no value on life. Therefore I would not recomend visiting either place. the only mistake that Bush and the U.S. has made is not taking all of the assholes (Lib's) from florida to iraq and soon iraq would be just a bunch of assholes! I guess that would be cruel and unuasual punishment. So the only answer is nuke them both send the rest to austrailia make sure they have no boats, enhance the white shark population . Then maybe we will all have a chance. Why don't you fools ask the victums what the percentage is of being attacked in either place. I'm sure there responce would be 100%. So much for all of your numbers.

I note that chris, in a previous posting mentions a crime "epidemic". This may have been a fair statement 20 years ago, but not now. In fact, most newspapers are reporting the same trends via Associated Press releases, based on the same FBI statistics that we all depend on.
In general, violent crime has dropped significantly to historically low levels, and has only as of, I believe, 2003 that there has been an upward trend.
Although it can be argued that "the media" don't report violent crime in this country as much as "they should" perhaps that is because there is much less to report.

i like it when points are proved with actual math.

if you notice the replies from the right are all " we MEANT that you liberals focus on the bad stuff in iraq and none of what goes on at home". well thats rewriting history now isn't it? if there weren't a war overseas, many liberals would be shouting about the atrocities going on in our cities. and why should someone try to find good in a war they didn't want? it seems to me that reports like this are more to convince other right-wing-lunatics that they didn't make a mistake supporting the iraq war.
how on earth can anyone smart enough to use a computer and be stupid enough to believe that a WAR ZONE is safer than disney world? and then back it up with numbers that still prove the opposite? thats like saying "the sky is orange!! i have the photo-negatives to prove it.

i would almost agree with the "conservatives". (im sorry i just cant call them conservatives because "conservative" implies being thoughtful i.e. to conserve resources. i think "right-winged lunatics " fits a little better.)
considering that florida has both catherine harris and jeb bush in charge, they make a good case for florida being more dangerous than iraq. here is the difference between FL and iraq, one is run by religious zealots who will not stop untill all either are converted or killed, and the other is a WAR ZONE.

i hope thats the kind of response you want us commie pinkos to give.
now in return, you have to use *gasp* logic and reason.

I've lived in Miami, reside in Florida, and visited NY, LA, etc. Pretty peaceful places full of interesting people and things, if you ask me. I've realized I have little danger to worry about, because there is a thing called "Street Smarts", I know where there's danger coming, when to walk fast (or run), whats parts of town to get the hell out of asap, and who not to look in the eyes. The violence in these cities is constantly broadcast on local news stations, you hear about every rape, murder, child abuse case and things you'd rather not know about that are happening in your own backyard, it just doesnt make the national news unless its really major. Iraq is NOT in the spotlight on local TV.

I dont think my street smarts would work in Iraq, if an area looks totally safe to walk through or not, I have now idea where bombs or bullets might come from. I guess this comes from fear and propaganda right?

31 years in South florida and not a victim of a single crime, knock on wood.

Havent heard of much Iraqi tourism going on lately, since after all its so relatively safe.

FIRST, I agree that Florida needs help, and that as a nation, we need to find a way to fix our crime epidemic.

However, I don't understand how you (or Gittoes) could possibly be saying that roughly 50,000 murders out of 26,000,000 is somehow LESS dangerous than 883 out of 17,000,000?

I also find it interesting that you list "violent crime" as a category like murder, rape, etc. A "violent crime" or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons.

So using the stats from above:
Murder/Manslaughter - 883
Rape - 6,592
Robbery - 30,141
Aggravated Assault - 88,341

if you add all those up... guess what they equal? You guessed it...
Violent Crime - 125,957

So yes, there was more reported "violent crime" in Florida than there were reported MURDERS in Iraq.

Sound logic tells you when making a comparison, make sure it is comparing "apples to apples". In this case, you are comparing "apples to fruit" ...

Using that analogy with your reasoning, you are trying to draw the conclusion that "Since Florida has more FRUIT than Iraq has APPLES, Florida must have more Apples." This is flawed logic, and I really hope you recognize this.

So here is your apples to apples comparison:
For the sake of easy math, let's say Iraq's #'s are 50,000 murders for 25,000,000 people and Florida's are 800 murders out of 16,000,000.

Using these "estimates", 1 in 500 Iraqis was murdered while 1 in 2,000 Floridians.

When comparing murders to murders you will see that an Iraqi was FOUR TIMES more likely to be murdered than a Floridian in 2006. That is the only conclusion you can draw from the numbers you provided.

Ah, thats what I like to hear, a bit of fire in the belly.
I think it is a good point you make that there is little appreciation of the underbelly and disadvantage in american society, and it goes unreported by serious media. That's why I said it is possible to acknowledge both dangerous situations. But I feel the main push of the post was to downplay the unreal violence in Iraq caused by the loss of the rule of law.

"let’s keep the war in Iraq in perspective"
it's not all that bad?

Hey MORON Mat from Australia,

I can't stand people who post comments and don't take time to read and/or understand the main point of the topic at hand. The point isn't to take lightly the tragic deaths in Iraq; rather, the point is to illustrate how the left in America (specifically the media) are so consumed with the war in Iraq, that they ignore to report on the tragedies in their own backyard. I would also add that they NEVER report the good news in Iraq.

Damn, I didn't know they had left wing idiots in Australia. Please do me a favor and stay there!

And perhaps it is your attempt at irony, or perhaps you are a complete moron, but your figures prove that iraq is more dangerous.

Ok, you think iraq isn't so bad a place?
This is the news from iraq just from TODAY:
82 dead from car bombs, murders and clashes.

150 taken hostage from the Higher Education Ministry for University (as we know hostages usually end up dead)

Hundreds injured in car bombings. Hospitals lack resources to treat people and turn them away. Morgues lack the space and pile the bodies in the street, or bury them unidentified.

"Clothes merchant Mohammed Ali, 30, had closed his shop early and was heading home when the bomb blast threw him from his motorcycle.

I could see people on fire. We tried to rescue some women from minibus, but they died in our arms,'' Ali said. "

Yes, florida is a very dangerous place. Americans live there. By your own data, on average 3 people are murdered every day.

It is possible to acknowledge America is a dangerous place and at the same time appreciate the terrible reality for civilians in Iraq. And I am Australian.