we prayed for a day like this week

* its fun that the papal-death-watch drowned out the apparently big news that iraq now seems to be approaching something like a government....

* "Mexico is heading for political crisis after its Congress voted to impeach the leading candidate in next year's presidential election in what his supporters said was a naked act of obstruction." LINK
apparently there were "several hundred thousand supporters in the capital's central square" what will the democracy-bringers do? did blinky discuss this when he was in mexico recently? who else was in mexico recently? i think the anti-c.rice went? and maybe rumsfeld? is this why the media was told to go wall2wall pope-arama? is this version2.0 of the failed media strategy wrt the venezuela debacle?

* similarly, heres Shakespeare's Sister:
"Nothing happens in a vacuum with this administration. DeLay suddenly having lost his protection, finding himself naked, cold, and alone on the front page of the Washington Post, was not inevitable, not in this media climate. This is an orchestrated takedown, and you can bet your boots it’s a red herring for something. We’ve just got to make sure we keep our eyes peeled for exactly what that something is." LINK

* meanwhile, rebecca thinks that the pope-a-palooza is unadulterated p.r. with a splash of zero-cost programming - which is possibly true, but she also says (in passing): "i used to work in public relations. back then we prayed for a day like this week (just a day!). some family man was leaving his wife and kids for his pregnant mistress and a day like any of the past 9 or 10 came along, we'd be screaming, 'we're putting it out now! no(one) will even notice it!'" i'd posit that maybe this was the *purpose* of the ridiculous level of coverage.

* along the same lines, im reminded of that pr chick in the uk who worked for the transport ministry who suggested shovelling out bad news on the morning of 91101. she got sacked for doing what she was taught to do on her first day at pr school...