So the good news is that the New York Times leaves out the error/lie in the print version of their story "Obama Sees a 'Complete Failure' in Iraq" which runs on A11. The bad news? The version that went online yesterday evening still contains the error/lie "Obama Tells Veterans Iraq Plan Is Failing:"
One of the biggest applause lines of his speech came when he pledged that during an Obama administration, veterans would not have to wait months -- or years -- for services at veterans hospitals. He also said it was wrong for anti-war activists to protest at military funerals, declaring: "It needs to stop."
What needs to stop is reporters working in their attacks on the peace movement and editors not knowing the basics. What needs to stop is the paper, that is referenced in student papers and by other news organizations, refusing to correct their mistakes.
As Cedric's "New York Times lies again!" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! NEW YORK TIMES LIES ABOUT PEACE MOVEMENT!" noted yesterday (cross-posted here), Obama didn't say "anti-war activists" in his speech. The speech is available online. Obama would have killed his campaign had he because it is the Fred Phelps' homophobic crew that shows up at those funerals. They are not "anti-war activists" or peace activists. If Obama made the mistake, he'd be having Dan Quayle press all week and probably be announcing he was dropping out because it is such a HUGE mistake -- confusing right wingers protesting against gays and lesbians with peace activists -- but what happens to Jeff Zeleny (credited for both the print and online story) and the editor? Anything?
They are WRONG. They are hugely WRONG. And there's no correction to the story. We honestly expected the online version would be 'disappeared.' That didn't happen. It's still up online with no correction.
Elsewhere in the Times, Damien Cave and James Glanz look at the bombings in northern Iraq from last week (Tuesday) for "Toll Rises Above 500 in Iraq Bombings:"
One week after a series of truck bombs hit a poor rural area near the Syrian border, the known casualty toll has soared to more than 500 dead and 1,500 wounded, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, making it the bloodiest coordinated attack since the American-led invasion in 2003.
Dr. Said Hakki, the director of the society, said Tuesday that local Red Crescent workers registering families for aid after the explosions near the town of Sinjar had compiled the new numbers, which dwarf the earlier estimates of at least 250 dead.
The toll, Dr. Hakki said, may yet rise. Emergency workers continued to drag body parts from the site's dusty rubble.
Meanwhile Bully Boy is attempting to put some distance between himself and the US puppet Nouri al-Maliki that he has long stood by publicly. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg (New York Times) report on the:
striking attempt by the White House to distance itself from the Maliki government before September, when the president's troop buildup faces an intense review on Capitol Hill.
That timing is no coincidence. Mr. Bush is already facing skepticism within his own party over the troop buildup, and will almost certainly confront repeated attempts by Democrats to force an end to the war. So he seems to be laying the groundwork for a new message, one that says, "We're doing our job in Iraq; don't blame us if the Iraqis aren't doing theirs."
Martha notes this from Michael A. Fletcher and Megan Greenwell's "Bush Turns Up Heat on Maliki" (Washington Post):
White House aides said later that Bush's comments did not mean he was withdrawing support from Maliki but were simply a statement of reality -- that Iraqis were growing frustrated and that under the country's new democratic system, the people could decide to replace the current government with a more capable one. But the president's tough words -- together with similar strong statements from the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad -- suggested that the administration's patience with the current leadership is wearing thin.
Still, Bush intends to use a speech Wednesday to continue making the case for remaining in Iraq, despite the frustrations.
Support for Maliki also appears to be eroding on Capitol Hill. On Monday, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged the Iraqi parliament to oust Maliki's government and replace it with one that is more unifying, if Maliki cannot forge a political accommodation with rival factions soon.
Bully Boy propped him up. The most laughable aspect may be his revisionary 'history' re: Cambodia. Do any but the devoted trust Bully Boy for knowledge at this point? Samantha notes "Bush to Blame U.S. Exit from Vietnam for Terrorism" (The UnCapitalist Journal):
President Bush is planning to give a speech on why he's going to keep the U.S. mired in Iraq, and he will claim he's doing so because of the "lessons" of Vietnam (as if he and his fellow chickenhawk neo-cons were ever there).
In an altogether stunning expression of broader, radical historical revisionism long held by neo-conservatives, Bush will assert that our exit from Vietnam "emboldened" today's terrorists. Incapable of admitting utter catastrophe in waging a 21st Century war of aggression that has left the U.S. armed forces debilitated and incapable of effectively fighting even a single theater war against a real enemy, and unable to face up to the wreck visited upon the fiscal house of the nation by irresponsible tax cuts for the rich coupled with unending, uncontrolled costs of vaporous war against a stateless band of criminal maniacs, the President of the United States of America is about to go all the way back and blame Richard Milhouse Nixon for this miserable failure of a Presidency.
On the helicopter crash today in Iraq, CBS and AP note:
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was part of a pair on a nighttime operation when the crash occurred. The four crew members and 10 passengers who were killed, according to the U.S. military, were assigned to Task Force Lightning. It was the deadliest helicopter crash since Jan. 20, when a Black Hawk crashed in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, killing 12 soldiers aboard. The military said that helicopter might have been shot down by a shoulder-fired weapon.
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