President Bush said Tuesday that war protesters like Cindy Sheehan who want an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq "are advocating a policy that would weaken the United States," and that Ms. Sheehan did not represent the views of other military families he had met.
The above is from Elisabeth Bumiller's "Bush Says Leaving Iraq Now Would Be Wrong" in this morning's New York Times. I keep waiting for her to return to the fluffing but she hasn't thus far. (In my opinion -- as always, I could be wrong.) I don't know whether this is a phase or a turnaround. If it's a turnaround, I'm obviously wrong and I'll gladly be wrong if it means the Times is going to have at least one more serious reporter (there aren't a lot of them at the paper).
Visitor Jay wondered if I'd just run out of jokes about the Elite Fluff Patrol sqaud leader? Please, those jokes write themselves! In addition, I have a new song parody ready to share. (One that's time sensitive.) I'd love to mock but I'm not seeing anything to mock. She does say "about 100 protestors" and other reports have put the number at 200. The Times is never good at counting protesters so I'll go with the higher number.
We'll note another section of Bumiller's report, where Bully Boy's speaking:
"So I appreciate her right to protest. I understand her anguish. I met with a lot of families. She doesn't represent the view of a lot of the families I have met with. And I'll continue to meet with families."
Really now, Bully Boy? And when will he find time to meet with Patrica Roberts? As noted on Democracy Now! ("Mother of First Soldier from Georgia Killed in Iraq Also Demands to Speak with Bush"), "Her son Jamaal Addison was killed in Iraq in 2003."
PATRICIA ROBERTS: My son was with the 507 Maintenance Company. He died with Jessica Lynch and the P.O.W.s. He was the unit that took the wrong turn. He was one of the 11 that got killed, the first Sunday, which they call that day the "Bloody Sunday."
[. . .]
YORUBA RICHEN: You haven't been able to meet with President Bush. Do you want to, and what would you say to him?
PATRICIA ROBERTS: Yes. I do want to meet with President Bush. I feel that President Bush owes me a personal condolence, being again that my son was the first soldier to die for Georgia, and when I watched him go to church and do other things with the soldiers that were alive and the other people that he was commending for what they had done, I felt that he owes myself and every other parent the personal respect of saying to them face-to-face, knowing who their soldier is, knowing the parents and saying, "My condolences for what your son did for me and our country." How he goes about choosing which parents he talked to, because I don't know why I haven't gotten the opportunity to talk to him. So I would like to know how he goes about it. Is it the ones that support the war? And that's the ones that he's talking to, those soldiers that survived? Are he talking to the families that once their child is gone, that they still support him? Are those the families he's talking to? I don't know who he is talking to. All I know is that he is not talking to me.
Exactly when will the Bully Boy make time for Patricia Roberts? It's over two years after her son, Jamaal Addison, was killed. What's the time table Bully Boy's working from? Are all those vacations leaving him little time to work? (Will he hit a full year of vacation before Dec. 31, 2005? Magic 8 Ball says, "It is possible.")
Lastly, we'll note this from Bumiller's article:
At a low-key protest of about 100 people in Boise a few hours after the president made his remarks, Melanie House, the widow of a Navy corpsman, said, "I really don't feel like what I'm saying or doing weakens anything." Ms. House's husband, John Daniel House, was killed on Jan. 26, 2005, in a helicopter crash on the Iraq-Syrian border. That was the deadliest day for American forces in Iraq.
"I want the troops home," Ms. House said in an interview. "I want to know why they're there, and why my husband had to die, why I had to become a widow at the age of 27, and why my son had to become fatherless at the age of four weeks." As she spoke, she held her son, James Cash House, now 8 months old.
Again, I have no problem doing the full Bumillie on Bumiller but I'm not seeing the fluff her reporting has become noted for. If any member disagrees, e-mail and we'll note it here. If you want to write your own critique, e-mail that (and note it's to be shared here) and it will go up.
Eli e-mailed requesting that we note Mike's "News and explaining the process for The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review" (Mikey Likes It!) describing the process behind "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review:"
That's one of the things we covered in "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review." Bobbie e-mailed asking why I didn't deliver a report in that Sunday feature? Last week, Elaine lost out on her story and Cedric's got slashed to an announcement. So Betty, Jim and me decided to focus on helping with the behind the scenes stuff. Dona is like the producer. She's making sure that it doesn't run long and telling C.I. to extend or hurry based on the time and whether or not someone going next has their report ready. And based on the time, she and Jim are looking at what people have ready for their report and helping them cut it if time is short or helping them extend it if there's more time. But there's usually not more time. When you read it and C.I.'s talking about something and asking questions, Dona's telling C.I. to extend because the next report isn't ready. C.I. hates being the anchor but everyone thinks C.I. does a great job, except C.I. Like Dona said here last week, you need someone who can think on their feet and who knows stuff because if she's saying, "Stretch this out" then the anchor's got to be able to say something more than, "So how's your day?"
How does it start? We're usually finishing something and Dona will say, "News Review in 15 minutes." Which means we're all tossing out ideas for topic for like 5 minutes and if someone hears a topic they like, they grab it and leave before that 5 minutes so that they can get their thing started. People will toss out sources and stuff to use like, "We haven't used ___" or "We should use ___." And 5 minutes before it's time to start, Dona will ask who's got something ready and is ready to go? C.I.'s usually helping someone with their report at that point. Then it's right before it's time to go and Dona will tell C.I. who the first person up is and the topic of their report. Then we're transcribing it in real time. Elaine went first and we were glad because she didn't get to go last time but there was time needed to stretch because Ava's thing on Pittsburgh needed a little more time and Dona had her planned for next. So C.I. tossed out a topic to Elaine that she had written about and it reads like it was planned but it wasn't. It's time for the next segment and Jess goes next to give Ava more time and Cedric's not ready cause he is trying to find more sources for his story. Jess was way cool and had more stuff than he planned to use which was good because Dona was going stretch and I was helping Cedric and Jim and Betty were helping Ava. We couldn't find an additional report so Cedric worked that into his report. And that's how it moved along. Then I went to help Dona because Kat had a huge report and was asking for help on cutting it. She was going to include the news about Barbra Streisand's new song but we had time to watch the first 40 seconds of the video while Cedric and C.I. were stretching. It's not a pro-war song but it's not an anti-war song. Kat cut out this long thing she had on that. And there was other stuff that got dropped too but we were all the most depressed about Streisand's song because the stuff Kat found made it sound like it was this really deep song about peace and that's not what it is. It's a nice song, don't get me wrong, but it's not this amazing peace statement like we were all thinking. And while all that's going on, Ava, Jim, and Betty have gone ahead and included London in her report which made it even stronger and a strong way to go out.
That actually answers Tony's questions as well and just leave Damica's question which was what is C.I. told about the reports ahead of time? Dona gives a brief sentence like "Kat's going to go over music, she's got a Garth joke in there." Or Dona will tell C.I. "You're going to Jess next and he'll be talking about Cindy Sheehan and he has material to extend with if it's needed." That's it.
When she's saying that C.I. is either listening to someone give a report or speaking to them and she really couldn't give much more detail without it being confusing probably. Damica wondered if C.I. and Ava had worked out their exchange during Ava's report because it flowed so well and, no, they didn't. But Ava and C.I. work well together. They do the TV review together and all and they think a lot alike so that's probably what you're seeing when you read it. I also think C.I. doesn't worry about tossing what could be a curve ball to Ava because they know each pretty well and know what each other can handle.
(For the record, Mike's very kind, but while everyone else is working hard, I'm just sitting there saying, "Uh-huh, and then what?")
Via Rod, here are the scheduled topics for today's Democracy Now!:
A look at rising oil and gas prices, hybrid cars and Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez.
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