Look, Ma! Real Journalism!

So Sunday morning (like 4ish) I was watching the recast of Saturday night's Bill Moyers Journal episode. (Sigh. Yes. I know. I know. I'm an uber-nerd. Yeah. I listen to NPR too. Naff off!)

The first segment was an expose conducted by staffers at the Seattle Times concerning earmarks. I've always been curious about earmarks, but they're a super shady slice of government pie. It's nearly impossible to glean any info about them from the yearly budget reports. After watching the segment, I understood why.

There are two particular parts of this expose that really pissed me off. Basically a member of congress earmarked millions of dollars for this helmet-mounted display for soldiers on the battlefield. Funny thing: the soldiers testing it said it was absolute crap. But because the earmark was part of the DOD budget, the army was forced to buy the displays and then chunked them in a warehouse.

Secondly, another congressman earmarked millions of dollars that forced the Marines to purchase--get this--t-shirts. You're probably thinking, so what? Well, uh, t-shirts are made of polyester, and guess what? Polyester burns. Gee. What do soldiers outside the wire not need to wear? Yeah. Flammable clothing. I couldn't believe that the reporters had to explain this for viewers. I've been accused of lacking common sense, but even I've known since I was a kid that cheap t-shirts are flammable. So yeah. The Marines purchased the shirts but then couldn't use them. Or rather, the Marines refused to wear them.

I can think of lots of better ways to spend millions of dollars of the Defense budget, like, oh, on fixing up the shatty VA system or increasing the educational benefits for National Guard soldiers. (Don't even get me started on that one. I almost puked when Ash explained how badly National Guard soldiers get shafted on that one....on a lot of stuff actually. It's despicable.)

Anywho. The second segment is the most interesting. Sarah Chayes is a former award-winning journalist who now lives and works in Afghanistan. Her experiences in Afghanistan are amazing. She went to cover the war and never left. After rebuilding towns and schools and such, she opened a cooperative to give Afghan farmers an alternative to opium production.

We don't hear a lot about Afghanistan anymore. I think a lot of people assume everything is sunshine and ponies over there, but it's far from it. I only know one person who has actually been there, but I've never asked about her experiences. I find it distasteful to ask servicewomen and men to rehash their tours of duty. That might just be one of my quirks, but whatever.

At any rate, if you have 25 minutes, watch Sarah's segment on Bill Moyers. It's awesome and seriously educational. In this election cycle, it can't hurt to be an educated voter.