Well, if you enjoyed the Election Blog, welcome to the new blog…the one where we just talk a bunch of smack about national, state, and whatever issues we feel like.

So here’s my first topic…it seems like embedded reporters are just so pesky. They uncover uncomfortable truths, and what’s bad for our image, is bad for America.

Therefore, a Congressman is proposing removing reporters from the battlefield in Iraq.

What purpose does the embed serve? Ironically, most people don’t like embeds because they think their opinions are captured. The reasoning goes that embeds won’t report on the ugliness of war so as not to risk giving up their ability to continue along with the troops.

The proposal by Rep. Jones to ban reporters from the battlefield is obviously based on the famous footage of a Marine shooting an unarmed and wounded Iraqi in a Fallujian mosque.

But if you want a fascinating, and absolutely engrossing story to read…check out the blog of Kevin Sites , the combat photographer and reporter who took that explosive footage.

In it he makes a very reasoned and thoughtful argument as to what he was going to do with the footage and how it would be perceived.

If Rep. Jones is worried about this footage, maybe it’s because he a). has no idea that war is ugly and fraught with bad decisions b). he’s worried about public opinion turning against this particular war.