Dogs, Not Barking

It's been a long time since I did one of these...an occasional item in which I note things that haven't been in the news, which itself indicates something interesting.

1. Continuing item: Where's Betsy? We're two weeks in to the Senate debate on health care reform, and the bill has been available for over three weeks now, and still no new death panels or other preposterous nonsense from repeat health care fabulist Betsy McGaughey, or for that matter any fringe reform opponents. Granted, I don't carefully monitor everything that Beck and the rest say, some I'm sure there are some new wacko things out there, but if so they haven't broken through to mainstream coverage or GOP speeches on the Senate floor. Weird.

2. Iraq/US casualties. Returning item (last mentioned back in August). While Iraq was back in the news this week with high-casualty attacks in Baghdad, nothing seems to change the relatively low level of Americans losing their lives there. Just 46 American deaths in the last five plus months. The moral: unless American casualties are higher, Obama has a lot of latitude, at least as far as public approval is concerned, to change the pace of withdrawal in either direction, because the press isn't going to pay much attention.

3. What happened to the Swine flu vaccine scare? Four or so weeks or so, it looked like it was going to be a major thing from both the fringe right and left; for all I know they're still yapping away, but no one seems to be paying attention any more. There hasn't been any celebrated case of someone getting the vaccine and then dropping dead (there must be such cases, since people die for unrelated reasons soon after anything, including vaccinations).

4. I'm disappointed to have to say that I haven't seen or heard any Fairness Doctrine craziness for a few weeks now. Please don't tell me that the talk show hosts are letting down their guard? Don't they know that Obama and his sinister Hill allies will most likely move against them any minute now? Vigilance, folks. Vigilance.