Laura or Tammy?

...and if you love him be proud of him, after all he's just a man, STAND BY YOUR MAN!

Actually...

I'm pretty okay with this.

Laura Bush made the absurd claim that things are going well in Iraq. And a member of the media prompted her to elaborate. I would have LOVED to hear Laura's litany of sunshine n' puppy-dogs.

Laura Bush

,,,WISHES she was Hillary Clinton,

But she's not.

Oh please

Laura Bush isn't elected to anything - naturally she supports her husband as any First Lady, or First Gentleman, would. There is no misinformation or bias here at all. So she was asked if there good things about Iraq - the First Lady was thrown a softball, so what?

On the other hand, the question really could have embarassed her if she had no answer for it. Then I doubt whether it would have been highlighted here.

????

There are lots of good things happening in Iraq? She's either advancing misinformation or she's completely delusional like her husband and the 21% of the pollees who think Bush is doing a "bang" up job in Iraq. You’re probably right though Tommy, maybe it's the primary job of the First Lady is to stand by her man. Jesus I would be a terrible First Lady, because if my husband was f-ing up the world I would tell him and I would stay off of television.

Lynn

I am not debating whether or not there are good things happening in Iraq or not - the point is that a reporter asked the First Lady. It was an innocuous question for obvious reasons, plus given the fact that she is not an elected official.

It doesn't raise to the level of a headline here, in my opinion. And that was the point I was making.

have to agree...

but challenging her statement was hardly a softball. Noron did a rare thing by asking for the first lady to back up her assertions. Gotta give her credit for that. It only resulted in the cliche "building schools, peaceful in areas" answer that we could expect from the first lady, but at this point in history, anything less than complete truth from those associated with this administration will just be future fodder for illustrating the depths to which these folks will go to deny their mistakes (or crimes).

And once again...

... the Right wants to tell MM what should and shouldn't be on their site.

Gets old, it does.

Per usual

Unlike your consistency, which never fails, to rubber stamp everything here with partisan approval - I prefer to look at it more objectively. If that bothers you, or upsets your ideological LaLa land, then I am very sorry.

Ignore me then.

its only your DELUSION

That you look at things objectively. You look at things through YOUR biased lens. As far as LaLa land Since your mailing address is on Planet Wingnut, I cant take that seriously

Mr. Objectivity

Unlike your consistency, which never fails, to rubber stamp everything here with partisan approval - I prefer to look at it more objectively. If that bothers you, or upsets your ideological LaLa land, then I am very sorry. Ignore me then. - tommy

-------------------------------------- this coming from a man who put the current incompetent administration in office and cheerleaded for them right up until they took a good thumpin' in the midterm elections?

you're about as "objective" as the F Word Network is "fair and balanced"

One Thing, Tommy

There are no innocuous questions when the subject is war. I understand your point and would agree with it, if Bush's war wasn't an unmitigated disaster. If the media was in fact ignoring the schools being painted and making up reports of people being tortured to death with power tools. But the reports of the killings is all too real and the reports of the re-building of Iraq will always be lost among the horors of war.

I'm not blaming Mrs. Bush but I do think the questioner was trying to elicit some happy talk to sell the quagmire. I don't remember reporters asking Mrs. Kennedy anything about the Cuban Missile Crisis or Lady Bird Johnson promoting the War in Vietnam. But then again, it was the sixties and I might have forgotten .

Judgement day cometh

Its not pretty now but, never mind, Jesus is coming. Those of us who are saved will be elevated to heaven soon in golden chariots just before the planet implodes. Those pesky liberal journalists and the global-warming scientists will be left behind to perish, except for the officially sanctioned ones. Peace.

This is...

If you believe this bunk about the rapture. You do realize that nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about rapture, and being taken into Heaven and all of that other hullabaloo that folks who believe in the rapture believe. Rapture was cobbled together by someone who wanted to start their own religious movement. There is nothing in actual theology that backs this assertion of rapture.

New demands....

>>"she is not an elected official"<<

Tommy's request (or is it an edict?): When non-elected officials (such as Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, James Dobson, or Condoleeza Rice, for example) give lying, delusional, spin-filled answers to media-thrown softball questions, it can't be included on the pages of Media Matters.

Yes you are

You said there was no misinformation or bias there. She said she KNEW things werent as discouraging as the media is portraying them. That is clearly misinformation of at LEAST bias. And againg what MMFA puts up on THEIR website just isnt your call. If you dont like it, tough.

You're Right

The primary job of the first lady is to stand by her man. Hillary did a great job of it too. Remember?

Absolutely

I guess if Laura was as on her metal as Hillary was, she would be blaming Iraq on a "vast left wing conspiracy".

but tommy

there was a right wing conspiracy, funded by richard mellon scaife, to go after the clintons. you've heard of the arkansas project? on second thought, you probably haven't.

left wing conspiracy

Tom Delay is already taking care of the whole blaming the "left wing conspiracy" thing.

Bruce

Clinton did not blow up the Middle East without cause, and as far as I am concerned the Lewinsky matter was a family matter and none of my business. Bush's shortcomings and Clinton's shortcomings are not comparable. One president is a major F-up and the other one, well never mind.

Just Remember Lynn

Your guy Kerry said he would have done the same thing based on what we knew at the time. We thought we had just cause for going in. Really, what would you expect Laura Bush to say? Criticize her husband on national TV? I guess if you want that check out the Enquirer or something that gives all the details on their messy divcorce and Georges out of control drinking binges.

Spare us, please.

Your guy Kerry said he would have done the same thing based on what we knew at the time.

You mean based on what he knew, what the American public knew, and what the Bush Administration TOLD everyone else. None of us of the "we" there knew what the Bush Administration knew, because if even Congress had known that there were lies, mistruths, and cherry-picked evidence that was presented to them instead of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the big picture, there would not have been nearly unanimous of this misguided and mistruthful foreign policy. At the very least, there would have been some meaningful discussion, don't you think?

In short: You can't show Kerry falsified evidence that the bowling ball is eight pounds and then blame him later for saying it is eight pounds, when the whole world later discovers that it is indeed twelve.

/bowling balls? //it must be time for lunch.

Kerry's Mistake

Actually believing that Bush has any integrity whatsoever.

Same thing? I don't think so.

>>"Your guy Kerry said he would have done the same thing "<<

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kerry made a point of calling on Bush to do several things (like get a true international coalition together, for instance, not the half-a$$ed one Bush got) BEFORE the last resort of invading the country. Bush failed to do those things, as Kerry has said since that time.

I do not believe Kerry ever said he would have "done the SAME thing". Same meaning, the same screwed up way Bush went into Iraq.

Kerry Knew

Kerry knew that Saddam had to be removed. Of course the way this war has been waged has not been good but Kerry would have gone in and removed him.

[link to www.independentsforkerry.org]

Nope

>>"Kerry knew that Saddam had to be removed ... Kerry would have gone in and removed him."<<

You said "Kerry would have done the same thing (as Bush)".

The speech you linked to shows no evidence of that. Or even that Kerry "knew" or that he "would have gone in" which is NOW how you're phrasing things.

Among many caveats and pre-conditions Kerry stated in that speech (which Bush failed to produce):

"The President needs to give the American people a fairer and fuller, clearer understanding of the magnitude and long-term financial cost of that effort."

You're right

When I said Kerry would do the "same thing" I was referring to the fact that we still would have ended up invading Iraq. Kerry said that, I heard him say it and I believe it. I'm not saying it would have been prosecuted the same way.

Beat another dead horse why dontcha

How about pretending that WMDs really existed? That should distract the board for at least another 30-40 posts.

Bruce

Come on I don't care one thing about the state of the Bush marriage. I view that as a private personal matter. That's why I was so appalled at the Clinton-Lewinsky nonsense. I said If GW was my husband (YUK) I would lecture him in private and stay off of the television. I wouldn't attempt to defend the mess he's created, I would remain in my own private secret location hiding my face in shame.

Bruce

PS. BTW, I already aknowleded that I would be an awful First Lady. (smile)

Okay

In your original "Stand by your man" comment, I interpreted that to be a slam against what Laura said, which was nothing different than what any other first lady would say in my opinion. They go on television to support the administration, not criticize it. I also agree with another poster who said that O Donnells question asking what good things were going on was not a softball, but rather a direct question that required Laura to come up with an answer. And her answer of the school building which has become cliche' really wasn't a great answer. Had O Donnell not asked that follow-up, I guess MMFA would have posted a thread about her NOT asking the follow-up which is a good example of how this website operates.

how naive

Like O'Donnell "surprised" Bush with that question. Please, the propaganda was prepared in advance.

No but she could refrain

From airing delusions at best

F Laura Bush

Really, what would you expect Laura Bush to say? - bruce1ace

-------------------------------------------------

How about the truth? Oh yeah, devils know nothing about that.

Only Democrats are challenged in interviews...

...while conservatives/Republicans are allowed to say anything they want without challenge.

I think THAT'S the issue Media Matter is pointing out here.

Laura Bush is going to support her husband, but the media's job is not just to sit there and be polite while she lies. They should do things like point out how the Iraq Study Group found that violence in Iraq is being underreported drastically (by their estimate, 1000%).

People like Norah O'Donnell should not sit by while the Bush administration tries to pretend everything in Iraq is going fine, and that Americans just PERCEIVE things as going badly because of the media.

Even Iraqi officials say the situation is dire and spiralling out of control. All independent media outlets worldwide are reporting the same thing. Even our own soldiers are saying this. The Iraq Study Group was VERY clear about how bad things have gotten in Iraq.

The worsening situation in Iraq (or "civil war", "sectarian violence", or whatever label you want to give it) is not some media invention.

We're NEVER going to solve any of our problems in Iraq if we won't even acknowledge the reality of the situation there. The Michelle Malkin's and Laura Bush's of the world would rather just hide their heads in the sand and scream "liberal media" while people are dying.

Pretending again.

>>"no misinformation or bias here at all"<<

Laura Bush says the public's low opinion of how the war is going is "because of the coverage that we see every single day."

That's misinformation-plainly obvious to anyone over six years old-- unless you want to pretend otherwise, which is what you're doing.

The Iraq Study Group concluded that the war is going very, very badly. They didn't come to that conclusion from watching tv.

Not an elected official

So what? She obviously out there stumping for the President, and she's not doing it on The View or Letterman. She's doing it on This Week and MSNBC New Live.

Karl Rove isn't an elected official. Should he be fed softballs, too?

You're way too much of an apologist, dude.

Yeah, most of the country is peaceful...

But the biggest city, WHERE ALL THE PEOPLE LIVE, is in the CRAPPER! And it's YOUR HUSBAND'S FAULT

Jesus H. Christ, send this woman and her idiot husband back to TEXAS!

You mean...

back to Massachusetts.

Bush is a New England yankee through and through.

Wearing a hat and boots doesn't make him a cowboy.

Not Massachusetts deeznuts

The Bush clan is originally from Connecticut I believe. And they vacation in Maine.

PLEASE do NOT send George & Laura here [I'm in Massachusetts] we already have our own assortment of nut case politicians ....Kerry, Kennedy...

Bushbots

You voted for him, you take him home.

nerzog......

Hey, I'm a Texan......Pleeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz. don't send them back to Texas. Besides if you check your history, I don't think Bush is a true Texan anyway. I'm not the only Texan who doesn't claim Bush. Have you heard of the Dixie Chicks?

Isn't Bush originally from somewhere back East? We'll kick him out of Texas, how's that? I'm embarrassed that he has become a Texan.

Texan Jim Hightower

I am guessing Jimmy isn't a big Bush supporter either. [link to www.jimhightower.com]

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE!

Dear Christ help us!!! What are the odds that we would elect the most insane family in the world to lead us? Play this again...and just listen to her!!! The only way I can rationalize this in my mind is that it we must be hell right now!!!

But 41 is a real swell hero

Love how the media portays the odious G.H.W. Bush as some kind of improvement over Dubya. Only reason there is so much ignorance in this regard is that there was no internet back in the eighties and the snake didn't serve a second term, escaping the scrutiny the present incumbents have been subjected to. Dig deep, the Bushes are an evil empire unto themselves and their legacy literally spans many generations.

Yep

Ole Prescott sold materiael to the Nazis (Hey, there's $ to be made here, we can work with these people!) until Congress told him to stop. Twice.

Not good people, these folks.

This DOES belong here

Since Laura Bush is a mouthpiece for the Bush administration, this damn well belongs here. More proof of so-called network news having abrogated and abandoned its integrity, of its transmogrification from journalists to puff piece hucksters.

O’Donnell is nothing short of an enabler of lies, lies, lies. Yea.

"rebuilding"

I love the "rebuilding" mantra. You know, we blew their country to kingdom come, killed thousands of their civilians, ignited an uncontainable civil war and daily terrorist attacks on an unimaginable lever...but now, three years later we've rebuilt a few of the schools and hospitals we blew up in the first place. Who can't see the good news in that?

Lots of good things happening...?

I guess they could only stretch that one story about a school being painted so far. That story is so old and stale not even the lapdog Corporate Media can get any more traction out of it. They'll just have to settle with CNN running pictures of Barak Obama next to pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Boo hoo Laura.

virtually every time

some one complains about the "good news" being ignored, they mentioned the school[s] opened las week. i guess it's great if the kids don't get blown up by a car bomb on the way, the teacher isn't tortured and found dead in the street, or the various religious nuts don't close it down because girls are being taught.

How would we know

if there's anything good to report (outside of the de facto state of Kurdistan) since most members of the media don't want to get killed venturing outside the Green Zone. There's plenty of bad stuff that we probably aren't getting because, as Stephen Colbert says, "it's super depressing."

Frankly, with contractors Bechtel (with 52 employees killed) and Kroll (four dead) pulling out of Iraq, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of good being done.

..and

they keep touting about new schools opening and electricity available for I don't know 8 hours a day. Before GW bombed them 100% of the schools were open and they had electricity and jobs, security etc, etc. Look I'm not being naive here, I am sure Iraq could be a very nasty nasty place to be if you got on the wrong side of the dictator, all dictaorships are like that. But to They replace a dictaorshop with anarchy is not improvement. I recently read somewhere a politcal commentary that said Iraq isn't in a civil war , it's just mad chaos. There are criminals, insurgents, religious fanatics and just plain crazies running wild because there is absolutely no security in the country.

Very well said Lynn...

I do believed you summed up the situation perfectly.

Sad BUT true: Iraq was actually better off under Saddam...no life there wasn't perfect, BUT Bush's unjust & unnecessary war has made things worse.

And since the US was not under ANY imminent threat from Iraq, Bush should be held accountable for HIS colossal error in judgment. An ERROR that has virtually destroyed a once sovereign nation and left thousands of Iraqis & Americans dead or wounded.

Living in La La Land

Yeah, Iraq was veritable garden of Eden before we went in:

[link to www.hillsdale.edu]

living in "unable to read" land

no one said it was a garden of eden. but for the average person, things were better. it's a sad thing to say that people were better off under a dictator, but he kept the lid on the various factions killing each other. my objection to the whole fiasco from the beginning was that we were ignoring the history. [plus saddam had no weapons, the inspectors proved that]

Huh?

"...but for the average person, things were better..."

Tell that to the Kurds who were killed with poison gasses. Or the people who were fed into wood chippers, feet first. Or those who were forced to jump off 3-story buildings (blindfolded and with their arms tied behind their backs). Or those who had their tongues cut out with razors. Or the people who had their hands surgically removed. Or the ones who had their arms broken with iron rods. Or the thousands who dared to speak out against Saddam and wound up in mass graves. The ignorant tripe about the "good old days" in Iraq from you, Lynn, Jeter2 and "goldencalf" makes me sick.

How sick does this make you?

Please compare the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have died either by direct Allied attacks, or by the result of the resulting civil war, and also add in all of the rapes, mutilations, mass kidnapping, torture, and other niceties that we both hear and don't hear about, and give me a general idea of numbers -- how many did Saddam torture and massacre and over how many years? Compare that number to the number of Iraqis whose rapes, tortures and deaths are the direct or indirect result of our government's horrible foreign policy planning, and tell me if your sickness gets worse.

If it doesn't, you have no business claiming to be sick in the first place.

smoked

still unable to read. no one called it the garden of eden and no one said it was the "good old days". as for the "hands being surgically removed", that was horrific, barbaric, but in saudi arabia they just chop it off with a sword for thievery. they find people dead in the streets in baghdad with electric drill marks in their skulls. saddam=really bad, now=really really bad.

That makes us even

Your ignorance makes me sick all the time. Iraq was never Afghanistan. No one questiones Saddam was brutal of course like the gassing of the Kurds you talked about he was at his worst when we strongly supported him. There is no question however that before the first Gulf War, the Iraqis were the healthiest, best educated people in the Arab middle east with the largest middle class. They had women doctors. lawyers college professors. The first woman judge was sworn in 1959. Tariq Aziz one of the most prominent Iraqi politicians was a Chaldean Christian. No question there was a lot of bad things happening but compared to now, with thousands a month dying in civil unrest, women being persecuted religious bigotry causing untold murders only a complete moron would deny that things are worse now than they were before the invasion.

victimology

"...but for the average person, things were better..."

Tell that to the Kurds who were killed with poison gasses. Or the people who were fed into wood chippers, feet first. Or those who were forced to jump off 3-story buildings (blindfolded and with their arms tied behind their backs). Or those who had their tongues cut out with razors. Or the people who had their hands surgically removed. Or the ones who had their arms broken with iron rods. Or the thousands who dared to speak out against Saddam and wound up in mass graves. The ignorant tripe about the "good old days" in Iraq from you, Lynn, Jeter2 and "goldencalf" makes me sick.

- smokedcorn5887

------------------------------------------------------

You could get shot 50 times for being black and going to a bachelor party in NYC. We live under a fascist government too but somehow I don't think I would back an invasion.

Final solution

Oh, and this action was the solution was it? Many of the informed have gone public with the notion that this by far was the most significant foreign policy misjudgment in 250 years of US politics.

Mefirst you're absolutely correct...

This [schools being built] is ALWAYS the standard response whenever anyone is asked about the "good things" happening in Iraq.

At least we now know WHY we invaded Iraq...we wanted to build schools.

That's gotta be it, cause NOTHING else has been accomplished.

jeter

happy holidays.

J2

The Iraqis of the future are going to be the smartest people on earth because of all the schools we're building for them.

Kind of hard to go to school

when your probably going to get abducted, blown up or shot on the way...

Pickles is either lying, in utter denial, or just isn't paying attention.

MHK

Haven't you heard? Things are going swimmingly in Iraq. You're just an America-hater.

Sorry Rusty you have to speak up...

I can't hear you over the sound of gun fire and explosions?

They've built a swimming pool now?

Not only

did they build a swimming pool, but they painted it. Twice. But don't expect to hear that from the liberal media.

Irakee Skools

"The Iraqis of the future are going to be the smartest people on earth because of all the schools we're building for them."

Not if they're modeled after US government schools.

smokdwrong

Stop the America-bashing. Your hatred of our country makes me sick.

America

I love America, not Amerika.

She is Silly

Dreamer , Nothing but a dreamer . Must be hard to be smarter than George & have to go out & act like an imbecile. The Medias not telling US all the good things going on?And ,There are places in Iraq where its more peaceful?, duh People are rebuilding their lives? W.T.F. How does she not Gag on the words.

strange

This must be the first time in history where the inane argument that there were "good things" still happening in the middle of a war was supposed to reassure the public that things were going well. As if the fact that somewhere in Iraq, there are puppies and sunshine was somehow supposed to make the Iraqis feel grateful to the US for occupying their home and killing a half-million of their countrymen, and to make Americans forget that we've wasted billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers in a pointless, endless war.

In past wars, the standard government lie to maintain the people's support was that we were always on the verge of victory, no matter how badly the war was going. This war is going so disastrously that they can't even convince people of that anymore.

I can't stand this...

I can't stand this whole line of reasoning really that "good things" are going on in Iraq. Of course there are some good things, not every single day for every single person is going to be bad. But, when you're living in one gigantic war zone, things for the most part, are bad. Very bad. How many people were hauled to the morgues in Iraq in the first week of December? I think it was 1000+ that were killed off through violent means. Car bombs going off all over the place, people getting gunned down, kidnapped, tortured, beheaded, and killed off just because they were either Shiite or Sunni.

Now let's assume or place a single car bomb incident say in Times Square in New York. BOOM! Car bomb goes off, 60 some odd people are killed, and a hundred or more wounded from the flying debris and shrapnel. How long do you think this one incident would run in the media in the US? It would be non-stop for months on end, maybe even a year or more. Now, multiply this incident many times over during a month, and what kind of coverage would you get then in the US (remember, if this happened in the US). It would be non-stop talking 24/7 about car bombs. Not about the local high school team winning a state championship in basketball or something. Or how a new school opened up lately. No. It would be wall to wall coverage about car bombings.

I like how the current administration tries to play off the media covering the chaos and death and destruction in Iraq as them "not showing any of the good things going on." We keep hearing about this long list of good things going on, but yet, we never hear about what they are, where they happened, and so on. And we hear about the media not covering any of the good things so much in the media, then the people saying that we're not hearing about any of the good things going on, why don't they show us some examples when they have the microphone. Why don't they tell us what these things are when they're telling us that the media isn't showing any of the good things. We hear this refrain so often, that you'd think they would come prepared to actually talk about the so-called good things going on. But do they? Umm, no, they don't. I also like how the Bush administration is trying to blame the chaos in Iraq on the media, for once again, not showing the good things going on.

This is getting tired, and repetitive, and it's just not true. It's a war zone over there, and as we all know, war ain't pretty. It's not the media's fault we're over there, it's the Bush administration's fault.

Damn, that's good

Nice job comparing how a car bombing would be reported here to how it's reported in Iraq, Magnolialover.

keep it up and you'll get what you describe

The reason Bush went to war was to remove an evil dictator that was harboring and sponsoring people that want to kill Americans. He is trying to prevent the very scenario you just described.

With the Dems in power now we may actually find out sooner than later what it's like to have car bombs going off in our own country.

What about execution for religious conversions? No school for girls. Constant repression of women. Stoning for being raped? Sure... it was roses and chocolates in the Middle East before we got there. It's so good that they are killing each other to make it even better.

harboring and sponsoring people that want to kill Americans

Are you and Pickels getting "news" from the same source or are you taking the same happy pills?

"harboring and sponsoring people that want to kill Americans" Please show me one piece of evidence that you have to support this statement? Just repeating this statement over and over again doesn't make it true.

No one is stating that the Middle East is a nice place. Are you advocating that we go to war with every country that has the civil rights abuses you have listed in your posting?

Back up info

[Iraq was] "harboring and sponsoring people that want to kill Americans" Please show me one piece of evidence that you have to support this statement?"

I know you'll ignore this information because it doesn't fit your tidy little fantasy world but here you go:

[link to www.hillsdale.edu]

hillsdale

I went and read the article you recommend. It was devoid of any significant facts. It was totally innuendo based on a biased ideology. Even where he says he is going to quote verbatim from documents, he offers only very brief selected phrases that are meaningless without context. This is a really cheap trick.

He attempts to prove Iraqi participation in terrorism and makes claims that even Dick the P---- has not claimed. Certainly there has been interest by all Muslim countries in intimidating Israel supporters but Iraq was never a major contributor.

It was total crap.

RP

What facts and / or claims do you discount and why? Saying "It was total crap" isn't much of an argument.

smokdwrong

That's right. It's nowhere near the argument that "go and look at this website, nyah nyah nyah" is.

Stephen F Hayes

So your going to tell me that I should believe in the existence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda because of the book published by one conservative author?

You know the Department of Defense and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence doesn't even agree with his conclusions..

So what do you have to say about that?

crap is crap

For example he says there were faxes found that proved terror activities but he failed to say what was in the fax, who it was from, who it was to etc. He talks about Iraq support for a "terrorist group" which was "aligned" with Al Qaeda but did not substantiate in any way that Saddam knew about any such connection, if indeed there were any. Totally fact free. Even Cheney has not subscribed to this guy's story. That is the proof.

The entire piece was at this level. That is what I call crap.

Iraq...

Iraq was and is a Muslim majority country, but under Saddam, they were a lot more secular than any other country around them. Sure, there was a lot of anti American rhetoric going on in Iraq, but they didn't harbor terrorists ala Afghanistan, or provide major funding for them ala Saudi Arabia and Jordan. We, meaning America, were under no threat from Iraq. None. Get that? They weren't harboring terrorists, they weren't funding them, and we were NOT attacked on 9/11 by people from Iraq, nor where they supported by Saddam.

Now that we have invaded the country, turned it into a rather large scale mess, we may have made more enemies than not. You still have a better chance getting killed slipping and falling in your bath tub in America than you do from a terrorist attack. We're not fighting in Iraq so that we don''t have to fight them here, as we keep hearing over and over again from Bush and co. The terrorists weren't in Iraq to start with. Remember? There are plenty of credible sources that back this assertion (CIA, British Intelligence, and others).

Get that?

"but they [Iraq] didn't harbor terrorists ala Afghanistan, or provide major funding for them ala Saudi Arabia and Jordan. We, meaning America, were under no threat from Iraq. None. Get that?" - ML

You are simply ignorant - Surprise!!! - of the facts: [link to www.hillsdale.edu]

Get that? I didn't think you would.

again, Hillsdale

One single biased, fact deficient commentator does not prove anything except that yours and his statements are only ideologically formed opinions. I read the article. How do you possibly give any credence to someone with his background who make claims that even the most fervent Bush supporters in the administration have never made.

If his claims had any substance, you can be sure that they would have been put out by the Bushies. That, by itself, disproves their merit.

SC you are a joke

Bzzz try again. Nice how your try to peddle one conservative author that the Department of Defense and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disagree with as fact.

Hmmm

It appears that smokdwrong, having been countered with facts, has cut and run.

Stop

with the juvenile name calling and just post the damn link.

YOU of course

Are the ignorant one. What were the odds? I read myself Tenet say that the CIA could find NO involvement by Iraq in ANY international terrorism since they tried to kill George the smarter in 93. Some claims by a conservative writer hardly constitute proof. Cough up a single act of international terrorism we linked Iraq to or ACTIVE terrorist they harbored in the last decade or admit that once again you dont know what you are talking about.

Gettin' stoned

Stoning for being raped?

That's Pakistan, isn't it? Why didn't we go to war with them?

Oh, that's right. Bush decided they're our ally, so the stoning is okay. Also the Osama-harboring.

Musharraf was smart never to try to kill Bush's daddy.

Just remember...

Pakistan is one small military coup away from being an Islamist nation (majority of the country are Islamist, and highly radical) with actual real live operating nuclear weapons.

I heard that Saudi Arbia

is a really nice place and I was thinking about taking a vacation there over my winter break... The Bush admin (part 1 & 2) sure seems to spend a lot of time with the Royal Family so they must be nice people.

That Royal Family really knows how to put the smack down on civil rights.. Not to mention the boat loads of cash just lying around... some how keeps ending up in the hands to terrorists.

You are not describing Iraq.

"What about execution for religious conversions? No school for girls. Constant repression of women. Stoning for being raped?"

You are not describing Iraq under Saddam Hussein -- you are describing what Iraq is quite likely to become because we've destroyed the secular government and allowed religious conservatives and potential extremists access to control of the government.

Go, Mr. Bush. Brilliant.

What we will get

Please tell us who was being harbored in Iraq who wanted to hurt us. There was no Al Qaeda until after we invaded. Al Qaeda was anathema to Saddam. Who else can you cite? Most of the 9/11 perpetrators were from our great ally - Saudi Arabia (you know, the country with all the Bush family friends), none from Iraq.

The scenarios about women that you describe occurred in Iraq rarely. Iraq was a very secular country with women having rights and power. All those things you mention do happen regularly in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Did I mention that they are our allies?

You really need to do more research before you make your comments.

What about those things?

THEY WERENT HAPPENING IN IRAQ. When will you conservatives ever buy a darn map. Iraq was NOT Afghanistan. Women DID go to school they had women doctors, women lawyers, women college professors. School was free to women and men through medical school. The first woman judge was in Iraq was sworn in 1959. You are such a propaganda parrot, repeat the nonsense and NEVER know what you are talking about.

If I had a brain tumor...

the size of a golf ball, I guess I could say that 99% of my body was healthy. I suppose you could apply the same distorted logic to Iraq; most of the country is doing just fine...except that it's brain has terminal cancer.

actually a good idea

it was right of her to prompt Bush to list the good things... it prevents Bush from simply making an unsubstantiated generalization... you say there are good things? do tell!

unfortunately, Bush is following that whole consternative "blame the media" thing... she and her kind don't understand that it's not the media's job to make her happy, but to report facts, negative or positive...

They want this fiasco to continue

Norah just likes to hear herself laugh.

Like the other pundits--she just carries the water for these carpetbaggers. Under no circumstances can she be considered a reliable journalist.

MSM is just as responsible for the death and destruction caused by this war as this administration. Being true to form, when this hillbilly administration (no offense to hillbillies) is in trouble they will sacrifice anyone to save themselves.

The question isn't why is Laura Bush on board with her Jethro Bodine husband and all his lies, but why are 132,290,323 taxpayers drinking the same Kool-aid.

The Bush family is clearly running this fiasco exactly the way they want it to be run. and he won't be changing a thing in the next 2 years. Except, of course sending lots of other parents kids into this mess.

Of the 132.2 million tax returns filed in 2004, 9,677 reported incomes over 10 million.

Surely, no one thinks those 9,677 taxpayers will be paying for this mess. With their kids or their money.

Don't forget in 2 years Jethro plans to be rockin' on the front porch with Scott McClellan.

O'Donnell

Oh my gosh, all of you (except Lynn & select others) are way off on this....can't you see this is all a misdirect, probably conceived by Rove, to get the 1st lady on T.V. to give a positive spin on Iraq instead of Chimpee (cuz whose gonna listen to him at this point on a subject like this, huh??)....I'm surprised the interview wasn't conducted on the FAKENews but that would be all too obvious....so let's use the next best DITTOHEAD...Norah O'Donnell who have proven time & time again to be this administration's lapdog on MSNBC.

I'd also like to point out if you are unaware, that any person/building/project that has a U.S. imprint on it is usually killed, destroyed or taken over & the credit goes NOT to the U.S. but to militias & people bent on removing credit on anything we may have done to help Iraq....regardless what is said by Laura or the pundits who would like you to believe differently....my info comes from a soldier I who is there right now.

Smokecorn????....put on your boxing gloves, you ditz

The Mission

"...can't you see this is all a misdirect, probably conceived by Rove, to get the 1st lady on T.V..."

That's ridiculous, Jizzy. It's really not Laura Bush. It's her clone that was created on the planet Sunev (that's Venus spelled backwards, but don't you tell somebody!!!) All of the republicans come from Sunev, Jizzy. It's top secret but they've been landing in their space pods at area 51 for decades. I don't want to frighten you Jizzy but Washington is full of these clones and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop the rest of them from coming. It's too late, Jizzy. The mission is accomplished!!!

Cornpone

Once again cornpone, thanx for another insightful adventure into your whacked out world....

...leave it to you to add comic relief to this site....no telling if there are any brain cells left for thought in the pea-sizsd cranium of yours.

Ahh, burnt corn, we're talking about the 1st lady & her puffy interview with Norah....see if you can stay on script, plz.

Jiggy

Come on, Jiggy, my post was only slightly less rational than yours. Do you seriously believe there's a Rove / MSNBC / O'Donnell conspiracy to push the administration's agenda here? If you truly believe that, I'm afraid you're just too hysterical to be taken seriously.

you are a joke

Its not a conspiricy when Chevy tries to make a profit and its not a conspricy when they trot out one of the only remaining popular people anywhere NEAR Bush to push his agenda. Her agenda was to make her husband look good, a thankless and frankly Hurculean task that is pretty much impossible. To do so she HAD to push the Bush agenda on Iraq. This is not a conspiricy theory this is obvious.

Stepford Wife

Actually Laura Bush is a Stepford wife. Notice the mechanical movements and remote controlled speech effects.

I seem to remember before we attacked Iraq

- there weren't any news stories about a new school being built every week - because the schools were AREADY open . . .

- the electricity presumably was operational 24 hours a day - instead of the 3, 5, 8 or however many hours it is now . . .

- and I even heard on a radio interview how Iraq had Western-style hospitals and health-care facilities as well as NATIONAL health care for all Iraqis - hell, we don't even have national healthcare in THIS country . . .

Not to mention the fact that most Iraqis support attacks against US servicepersons, and that since we've invaded, ObL can't stop talking on tape about how much he'd like to continue attacking us for being there.

Now . . . tell me again how things are better since we attacked?

Here's how

Some of the non-blown-up schools have fresh paint.

Prompted?

They do this little thing called a 'pre-interview' in television. In that interview I am sure Laura Bush mentioned "good things" happening in Iraq. What is wrong is wrong with asking for elaboration in the actual on air interview? Heck in your own text for thew interview on air she mentions it first. If he hadn't asked to elaborate you would then be saying that he let her go without calling her out on what you apparently think is a n outrageous statement.