Note: comments are closed on this topic because I am not going to allow anyone to post any garbage about our troops on my site.

Chuck D of Public Enemy is arguably the greatest rap artist of all time–at least in this observer’s opinion.  Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, the “Rebel without a pause” Chuck crafted some of the most blistering word assaults on conditions in America since the 1960’s peace movement. Of the voluminous library of sound bytes that have been sampled, stolen, and cited from Chuck D’s body of work,  it seems none have been called on more frequently than a single sarcastic question he boomed in a song called “Bring the Noise.”:  “How low can you go!?”

If that question is still an open one, we may have a 2008 nominee in the Sacramento Bee’s recent so-called investigative report series titled “Suspect Soldiers” that has been published over the course of the past couple days and drawn Chuck D-like manifestos from angry readers who think the Bee is completely out of line with the article, especially while the country is at war.

Today the Bee got dirt low when it published the bios of 16 United States military veterans in a “before and after” type format in support of perhaps one of the dumbest, most superfluous questions in the history of print media:  “Suspect Soldiers: Is there a link between postwar stress and crime?”

To the outrage of its reader base (clearly reflected in the piles of digital hate mail that have been posted after each article of the report), the queen bees at the hive must have somehow reasoned that by publishing the names, birth dates, mug shots, and personal details of less-than-honorable U.S. soldiers, they would  be providing battle weary readers–many of whom have lost loved ones in the Iraqi war–a valuable service.

Because “after all,” they must have reasoned over bagels and cream cheese, “our readers are complete buffoons who don’t know anything about the effects of war, the types of people who sometimes slip through the recruting cracks, and the morons running our military branches. They need people like us to expose these scumbags and teach them a lesson about the effects of war. Our readers are way too stupid to make the connection between the effects of war on the human psyche. They need us to spell it out for them. This could be the story that puts on the radar of CNN.com and other major news web sites that never link to our articles!”

Isn’t it just like the Bee to grossly underestimate the collective IQ of its reader base? Remember their outrageously moronic advice to readers prior to the this year’s mayoral primary? They suggested residents vote for a no-name candidate to force a run-off between the two principle candidates on the strength that such a delay would allow voters a better, more qualified look at the candidates.

Of course they assumed readers were too stupid to put two and two together and identify their hidden agenda: buying more time so they could print more anti Kevin Johnson articles, and ensure the results of the St Hope investigation (which the hive has made out to be the Watergate scandal), were on voter’s minds as they headed to the ballot box. Wrong AGAIN. Voters went completely against the paper’s advice and Kevin Johnson won easily with a 10% advantage over the incumbent.

Truly, if the Bee is going to start publishing national-based investigative reports, it needs to focus on the CAUSE of the war problems (BUSH) and not the many EFFECTS of his war-happy decisions.

WE DON’T WANT YOUR STORIES ABOUT OUR SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN unless they honoring them for their sacrifices. We understand WAR IS HELL. OUr brothers and sisters are dying every day. We are spending $4,000 per U.S. household to fight a war we don’t even approve of. We don’t need you or any other news organization feeding negative stereotypes about our servicemen and women, especially *WHILE WE ARE AT WAR!!!!!!!!!*  If ANYTHING, try getting out of your cold-hearted uber liberal world and sympathizing and empathizing with them.  When you post these kinds of stories you are treading Jane Fonda-colored waters, and I assure you these stories will never cause anything more than lost readers, canceled subscriptions, and  angry tirades like this one.

[My apologies to my former Univ of San Fran prof Ricky Desoiza who would rap me over the knuckles if he knew I was using "we" and "us" in a rant like this  ]

Try sticking to the stories that matter most to Sacramento residents right now: sympathy and support for our troops, public safety concerns (try posting mug shots of the criminals right here in Sacramento!!), the fires, air quality, the economy, child abuse (which I commended the Bee for reporting on), the failed commitments on the part of the city to New Sacramento residents, malfeasance at city hall, culpability of elected officials in improprieties connected to city departments, the actual track record of the sitting mayor, and so forth and so on.

I would say the Bee can not go any lower, but I’m certain I would be putting my foot in my mouth again in the future.. and the taste of my soles is getting nasty.

The entire premise of the series is absurd because the psycho test could be applied to ANY situation where human beings are assembled–for the purpose of defending a country … or fixing a freeway for that matter. It’s called the BELL CURVE. Sac Bee should check into it before they single out the U.S. military for their next sociology dissertation.

Here’s a glimpse at it for the stats-challenged: http://classes.kumc.edu/sah/resources/sensory_processing/images/bell_curve.gif

The Bee should stick to something more in alignment with their collective IQ’s… like NAIL GUNS