On Friday I received a call from a friend informing me of an event that seemed to have escaped the main stream news under seemingly more pressing stories about John Edward’s affair and the Olympic games. Major fighting has broken out between Russia and Georgia. The main stream media caught up by the end of the weekend. Wes Burney, a History Graduate who has been following the story for some time, gives us a play-by-play via his twitter feed

Major twenty-four hour cable news networks in the United States have failed to bring to their audience a balanced view of the world. Focusing on trivial domestic issues, the same repetitive hodgepodge broadcast every fifteen minutes make viewers assume a slow news day when in the reality of a global context there is more than enough to report.

Torture is a line that should be drawn clearly in the sand, however the Bush administration has actively worked to distort this line. With the now infamous line of the current administration’s rhetoric “The Gloves are Off¹,” US led interrogation has led to unlawful detainment of individuals for years without trials, due process or, in many cases, basic human rights.

The rising cost of health care in the United States is absolutely staggering. Within the hodge-podge of the industry, health care providers and insurers fight a delicate balance between authorizing treatment and preventing providers from overcharging for unnecessary tests and procedures. Universal Health Care efforts have been eroded away by industry lobbyist and a generalized fear of socialism. The consumer is left in the fray in an inflexible system that is weighted towards industry instead of the social welfare of the nation’s citizens.