Some days it thrills me that I'm nowhere near a TV screen

This is one of those days, as Anna Nicole fever grips the cable news nets.

The death of Anna Nicole Smith yesterday was a feeding frenzy for the national media, and coverage of the war was drowned out: NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

You should go take a look at the video they have on Think Progress. My two favorite parts are when Joe Scarborough searchingly wonders why the news media is so focused on the Anna Nicole story (while his news show is, you know, focused on the Anna Nicole story), and when gruff but lovable coot Jack Cafferty asks Leslie Blitzer "Is Anna Nicole still dead?" and Wolf says "Yes, we'll have an update on that shortly."

Another US helicopter went down, the Administration couldn't give a straight answer to Jim Webb about whether or not they think they can attack Iran without Congressional authorization, a report detailed no prisoner abuse at Guantanamo despite never having visited the site or talked to any detainee, the prosecution rested its case in the first trial of a top executive branch official in over a century, a top official of the Iraqi Health Ministry was captured for opening up his portfolio to Shiite militias... and the news nets went Anna Nicole crazy. Just like they went Aqua Teen Hunger Force crazy last week. Without blogs and the Internet, this nation's belief in a well-informed citizenry would be dying on the vine. But still these small news directors feel they're giving the public what they want, so they spend hours upon hours on a marginal figure in American life. Anna Nicole Smith is not Gerald Ford. She's not Betty Friedan. She's not Milton Friedman. She's not Robert Stafford or William Proxmire or countless other people who have died in the last couple years.

And she's most certainly not the most important young lady to die in the past few days.

Unlike some women you might see on your newsstand this week, this woman liked simple things: According to one report, she "always enjoyed the water, including boating and scuba diving. She also liked yoga and music and spending time with family and friends."

This is what her aunt says about this unique woman that America mourns tonight:

"If you knew her, you loved her. She was a go-getter. She knew what she wanted in life and she was doing what she had to do to achieve that."

Her name is Jennifer M. Parcell. She was just 20 years old, and she graduated in 2004 from Fallston High School in near her hometown, Bel Air, Md.

A couple of years ago, Jennifer Parcell went to Parris Island and watched the Marine graduation services for her older brother, Joseph. She decided that she, too, wanted to join the Marines, and eventually both Jennifer Parcell and her brother were sent to Iraq, even serving at the same post for a time.

But then, they separated. Yesterday, Jennifer Parcell was supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province when she was killed in action. If we had more information about her death, we would provide it. But here at Attytood, we don't have the millions of dollars in resources or the extra manpower that they have at CNN, or MSNBC, or Fox News.

We wish we did, because then we could give the life and death of Jennifer Parcell the national attention that it truly deserves.

And not just Jennifer Parcell, but all 3,115 heroes who have died in this catastrophic war. You can't even say the names of these dead people on television without stirring controversy. But you can blather on about one dead woman for entire days because she took her clothes off and married a 90 year-old.

Some days it thrills me that I'm nowhere near a TV screen. Today's one of them. It's better for my hand that I don't punch it out.