Ben Dover, investigative reporter

Everyone feels badly for the family of the young Alabama woman who wasabducted and killed in Aruba. But as this single tragedy occupied the news front and center, we saw the total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq pass 1700. Don’t even ask about those maimed physically and emotionally, or how some senior military officers say the armed fight against insurgents is virtually unwinnable and we’ll be bogged down for years. More instances emerge of our torturing (and killing) prisoners and illegally detaining them, yet the buck stops at the prison gates. Meanwhile, a memo showing how Dubya and company cooked the pre-war facts to suit their own agenda gets more outraged play in the European media than it does here. Instead, US media focuses on one life tragically lost in the Caribbean and the Wacko Jacko trial.

Granted, there are people, like the New York Times columnists Frank Rich, Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert, who continue to scream about Georgie Boy and his administration’s outrages, along with folks here and there, like Robert Scheer in the Los Angles Times and Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. But when it falls to a cartoonist — Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame — to address the horrors of this obscene, falsified war in Iraq more than newspaper and TV reporters, something is terribly wrong in this country.

A June 8 article in USA Today about the attention received by the above-cited "Downing Street memo," mostly from the foreign press, may have said it best: "We want what the Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton and Star Wars stories have gotten: endless repetition until people have heard about it," says David Swanson," an organizer with the activist group www.democrats.com.

As Rich pointed out in his Times column on Sunday, June 12, the Bushies have cowed the American media. The Washington Post, as we are reminded by the identification of Deep Throat, once had the cojones to go after the equally untruthful, dangerous, and deranged Nixon White House. Nowadays, the press is more inclined to parrot the day’s news releases and to get its knickers in a twist about using anonymous sources (and what a self-serving, poorly written piece by Bob Woodward about Mark Felt and how Deep Throat came to be, done after the Post had been scooped). We could also mention how Newsweek’s report about the Koran being mistreated proved pretty close to the truth, something revealed after the Bushes screamed for everyone’s head, from the CEO to the janitor at the magazine.

Pardon us while we lose our lunches.

Sleep tight, H.L. Mencken.

DARWINNER

Yes, folks, the legendary Darwin Awards have been given for 2005, and we particularly like this selection:

After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t discovered for three days.

In Little Rhody, he could have just taken them to the State House.

RALPHIE BOY

Could there possibly be a worse idea than doing a remake of the famed Jackie Gleason/ Art Carney TV skit-cum-series, The Honeymooners? The film, featuring Cedric the (Unfunny) Entertainer has been panned. Gleason and Carney, in particular, were gifted physical comedians, and The Honeymooners was a classic that should have been left alone. The idea that Cedric could come close to channeling Ralph Kramden is a travesty. We look forward to an upcoming film adaptation of Murder, She Wrote, featuring a cast of Asian midgets, set in Maine.

(A final salute to Ed Norton: "Hello, ball!")

MAIL BAG

We received two decidedly different e-mails from the same person this week. We salute Vinaya Saksena for his eclectic interests:

On Thursday, June 23, Democracy For America (DFA) will host house parties across the country. The Rhode Island gatherings will take place in Providence and Woonsocket at 7. Donations to DFA will be accepted.

Participants will view the trailer for Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price — the new documentary film from Robert Greenwald, producer and director of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism. A conference call with Greenwald and Jim Dean, chair of Democracy For America and brother of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, will follow . . . . For further details about the house parties, call the Rhode Island DFA information hotline at (401) 821-7656 or send an e-mail to RhodeIslandDFA@gmail.com.

Within days of the first e-mail, we got this further correspondence from the Warren-based Vinaya:

According to contactmusic.com, ALICE COOPER intends to behead socialite PARIS HILTON to make his upcoming world tour even more unforgettable. Cooper famously sliced off the head of a life-size mannequin of BRITNEY SPEARS, and he is keen to repeat the macabre performance with an effigy of the blonde heiress.

Vinaya thoughtfully added that Cooper has been vocal about how he voted for George W. Bush in the last election. We’re not entirely certain about the point, but it might show that not all Bush supporters are self-described "Christian conservatives." Some are burnt out, busted-up circus dog performers who continue to go back to the well for variations on the same lame ideas they’ve been trotting out for years.

JODY GIBSON

For many, many years, Jody Gibson, the truly unique, one-of-kind singer and musician, entertained people, mostly here in his home state of the Biggest Little. He was "old school," and we mean it. We’re talking about Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk, and Pete Seeger. The songs Jody sang were frequently about peace and justice, while others were satiric and about virtually anything. All were delivered with great passion.

We first saw Jody perform more than 30 years ago. He seemed to be some kind of wild man with his offbeat sense of humor and a powerful presence. We knew him first as the father of a couple of other immensely talented singers and activists, Joyce and Kate Katzberg. Medical researchers may want to check out the existence of an abundant "music/passion for justice" gene in this family.

We were saddened to learn that Jody, 75, died from colon cancer June 7 at his home in Newport. A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday, June 30 at 4 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church on Rhode Island Avenue in Newport, and it will be a celebration for friends and family to share songs and stories in Jody’s honor. He was a very special, not-to-be-forgotten person.

THE NAME GAME

While P&J have always enjoyed strange names in sports — such as the Brazilian soccer player Kaka, and the famed college hoopster brothers Scientific Mapp and Majestic Mapp — some people suffer even more heavily. We refer to the South Korean national team soccer player Lee Dong Gook, who can at least be thankful he doesn’t live in Vietnam.

OTIS ALERT

We learned last week that Otis Reed, a stalwart on the Rhode Island’s music scene for more than 25 years (currently working in a primarily traditional folk and Celtic mode with the multi-instrumentalist Phil Edmunds), and also a longtime peace activist, suffered a stroke.

Like many artists, Otis is not exactly strapped with health insurance coverage. Phil says there will almost certainly be a need to stage fundraising concerts and events to defray the huge bills. Our thoughts are with Otis for a full and swift recovery. He has performed gratis to raise funds for worthy causes hundreds and hundreds of times. Now he needs our help. So keep your eyes and ears open for coming events to give Otis a hand, and we’ll see you there.

Send a beach house and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j[a]phx.com.