Hide and...oh who are we kidding

Is it just me? Or do people not even hide things anymore?

Instead of covering the Iranian President's apperance, cable news (except C-SPAN) concentrated more on the small but vocal (and Jewish) protestors outside Columbia University. Nobody cared what he had to say. Nobody made light of the fact that he even bothered to come here at all. Did anyone ask, "If he really wants to destroy America so bad, why is he talking to college kids in New York?"? And then the real reason for him even coming to the US was overshadowed by a thrown together apperance by Bush, who stumbled through a badly written speech that made it seem as though the US was now interested in "saving" and "preserving the democracy" in Burma, or Myanmar. Which is it? Hmmm. According to the AP Stylebook, it is Myanmar. "Use this name for the country and the language. Use Myanmar people or Myanmar for the inhabitants. (Formerly Burma.)" And as we all know, the AP is omnipotent and all-powerful.

Yes, but, apparently the country is called Burma according to the CIA World Factbook. "Since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw." (SIDE NOTE: The United Nations, the group that Bush addressed for those of you who were under a rock the past week, DID recognize the name Myanmar as being the current title.) So, I wanna ask this question. Has the Associated Press recognized a country and it's government that the United States government hasn't? And is this an exapmle of the AP saying how meaningless the US is in the grand scheme of things?

The US calls it Burma because the current government consists of a military junta that is responsible for the majority of human trafficing (sex workers to Thailand, Vietnam and China) forced labor (Indonesia and Malaysia) in Southeast Asia and the number two opium producer in the world (right behind the 51st US state, Afghanistan).

And the AP calls it Myanmar because that's what the locals call it.

I wonder what the Chinese government calls it? And if they pushed Bush to say something? (thank god this wasn't about Taiwan/The Republic of China/Chinese Taipei...whatever.