20060411
Why is it President Bush can't send a message to the Iraqi People. They who the bad guys are. They want a free country. Turn in the bad guys. ???????
Exactly what progress is being made in Iraq?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/20060410.html
There is a great deal of progress everyday in Iraq!
04/11/06 NNS: Unrelenting Violence Drains Iraq Blood Supply04/11/06 CNN: Three roadside bombs reported in Baghdad04/11/06 DPA: Three Iraqi soldiers killed in Ramadi04/11/06 DPA: U.S. patrol hit on the Ramadi-Khalidiyah highway04/11/06 KUNA: Roadside bomb reported hit a MNF patrol near Kirkuk04/11/06 KUNA: Kidnapping reported in Kirkuk04/11/06 KUNA: Three Iraqi army recruits shot dead by terrorists in Mosul 04/11/06 BNA: Sixteen bodies found in Al Masayyib village04/11/06 WPost: Busy Iraqi firefighters get shot at by all sides04/11/06 IRIN: Doctors, NGOs warn of high infant mortality in Basra04/11/06 KuwaitTimes: Mannequins, fake funerals, booby-trapped bodies in Ramadi04/11/06 IranMania: Roadside bomb wounds four Iraqi police near Baqubah04/11/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds two near Baghdad04/11/06 AP: Five more bodies found in Iraq04/11/06 AP: Policeman killed in Karbala04/11/06 AP: Sunni professor killed in Basra04/11/06 AP: Mortars, gunmen kill two in Baghdad04/11/06 Reuters: Bodies of beheaded Iraqi soldiers found in Jurf al-Sahkar04/11/06 Reuters: Bomb attack on bus kills three people in Baghdad 04/11/06 Reuters: Civilians killed in Falluja clashes
Iraq's Beauty Queen Resigns After Four Days of Threats
Bush job rating at new low!
BUSH 60%... DISAPPROVAL!
GOP Congressmen: Time to Debate Iraq Endgame
Bush: Iran War reports 'wild speculation'...
Are We Really Going to Nuke Iran?
Attack Iran?Yes He Would
Gas price surge for summer?
Oil nears $69 as Iran tensions mount...
Gold speeds past $600; highest since December 1980...
Phone jamming records lead to White House!
BUSH: I DECLASSIFIED IRAQ DATA
Bush admission after question from student, not reporter...
Bush Leaked to Show People 'the Truth'
On the Subject of Leaks, a Talkative President Runs Dry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001500.html
President Bush was generous of word yesterday when he took questions from a group of students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
"I'll be glad to opine on it," he said on the topic of immigration.
"Kind of rambling here," he observed after giving a lengthy discourse on the benefits of freedom.
"I'm getting wound up," he confessed on the subject of protectionism.
"I'm not going to filibuster, I promise," he said, midway through an 865-word answer to a question about governing philosophy.
But then a second-year master's student asked about "Prosecutor Fitzgerald" and White House leaks to punish a critic. You could practically hear the zipper sealing the president's lips.
"Yes, no, I, this is, there's an ongoing legal proceeding which precludes me from talking a lot about the case," the president finally managed to say. All he could answer, Bush said, was that he declassified a National Intelligence Estimate because "it made sense for people to see the truth."
That answer neatly encapsulated the White House's response to the CIA leak imbroglio: No comment and non sequitur.
As for the non sequitur, it's true that Bush declassified the NIE, on July 18, 2003. But this was after vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had done his leaking -- with Bush and Vice President Cheney's blessing, Libby has testified. And the NIE said nothing about administration critic Joseph C. Wilson IV and his CIA-employed wife, whose unmasking started the whole scandal.
Nor is the White House's no-comment ending the questioning. Bush had no problem commenting on an ongoing legal proceeding when he said he believed that Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the indicted former House majority leader, was innocent. "Presidential prerogative," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said then.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, recommends that Bush exercise his prerogative again. "I think that there has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated," Specter said on "Fox News Sunday."
The White House, evidently, is unmoved by Specter's suggestion. McClellan referred 16 times in his briefings yesterday to the "ongoing" leak case as his reason for not commenting -- as when CBS News's Bill Plante tried to plumb the timing of the leaks.
"You're getting into questions about an ongoing legal proceeding," the spokesman warned.
"No, it's a timing question," the reporter corrected.
"We are not going to comment on it while it's ongoing," McClellan persisted.
"I'm not asking about the investigation," Plante pointed out.
"We're not going to do anything that would jeopardize an ongoing matter," came the inevitable reply.
As the questioning continued, McClellan offered that he would like nothing more than to dish about the leak case. "It's not a question of whether or not we would like to talk more about it," he pleaded.
The silence on the leaks is quite at odds with the president's increasingly garrulous public personality. His Iraq speeches are growing more frequent, and more confessional. "We have learned from our mistakes," he confided to the SAIS crowd, which answered each of his usual applause lines with silence.
Students signed and circulated an anti-Bush petition before the event, but the president, his jacket open, stepping away from the lectern, retained good cheer even punting difficult questions.
"I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it's kind of convenient in this case," he said when referring to the Pentagon a question about Iraq military contractors.
"I get protested all the time," he said cheerfully when asked about his "polarizing" presidency.
Asked about prostitution and human trafficking, he offered: "I will be glad to call Condi."
When a student rose and said he was studying "international energy policy," Bush, anticipating an energy question, interjected: "Oh, good!"
But it was not good. The student asked about Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's filing claiming "evidence of a concerted effort by the White House to punish Joseph Wilson."
The president hitched up his suit pants by the belt. He took a sip of water. He stepped away from the podium, then leaned on it with his left elbow.
He put his fingers to his heart when he spoke about declassifying the NIE. "I thought it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying," he reasoned.
That was preceded and followed by the no comment. "You're just going to have to let Mr. Fitzgerald complete his case," Bush said.
By that standard, Bush may not have to comment until sometime after 2008. ¶ 11.4.06
Exactly what progress is being made in Iraq?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/20060410.html
There is a great deal of progress everyday in Iraq!
04/11/06 NNS: Unrelenting Violence Drains Iraq Blood Supply04/11/06 CNN: Three roadside bombs reported in Baghdad04/11/06 DPA: Three Iraqi soldiers killed in Ramadi04/11/06 DPA: U.S. patrol hit on the Ramadi-Khalidiyah highway04/11/06 KUNA: Roadside bomb reported hit a MNF patrol near Kirkuk04/11/06 KUNA: Kidnapping reported in Kirkuk04/11/06 KUNA: Three Iraqi army recruits shot dead by terrorists in Mosul 04/11/06 BNA: Sixteen bodies found in Al Masayyib village04/11/06 WPost: Busy Iraqi firefighters get shot at by all sides04/11/06 IRIN: Doctors, NGOs warn of high infant mortality in Basra04/11/06 KuwaitTimes: Mannequins, fake funerals, booby-trapped bodies in Ramadi04/11/06 IranMania: Roadside bomb wounds four Iraqi police near Baqubah04/11/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds two near Baghdad04/11/06 AP: Five more bodies found in Iraq04/11/06 AP: Policeman killed in Karbala04/11/06 AP: Sunni professor killed in Basra04/11/06 AP: Mortars, gunmen kill two in Baghdad04/11/06 Reuters: Bodies of beheaded Iraqi soldiers found in Jurf al-Sahkar04/11/06 Reuters: Bomb attack on bus kills three people in Baghdad 04/11/06 Reuters: Civilians killed in Falluja clashes
Iraq's Beauty Queen Resigns After Four Days of Threats
Bush job rating at new low!
BUSH 60%... DISAPPROVAL!
GOP Congressmen: Time to Debate Iraq Endgame
Bush: Iran War reports 'wild speculation'...
Are We Really Going to Nuke Iran?
Attack Iran?Yes He Would
Gas price surge for summer?
Oil nears $69 as Iran tensions mount...
Gold speeds past $600; highest since December 1980...
Phone jamming records lead to White House!
BUSH: I DECLASSIFIED IRAQ DATA
Bush admission after question from student, not reporter...
Bush Leaked to Show People 'the Truth'
On the Subject of Leaks, a Talkative President Runs Dry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001500.html
President Bush was generous of word yesterday when he took questions from a group of students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
"I'll be glad to opine on it," he said on the topic of immigration.
"Kind of rambling here," he observed after giving a lengthy discourse on the benefits of freedom.
"I'm getting wound up," he confessed on the subject of protectionism.
"I'm not going to filibuster, I promise," he said, midway through an 865-word answer to a question about governing philosophy.
But then a second-year master's student asked about "Prosecutor Fitzgerald" and White House leaks to punish a critic. You could practically hear the zipper sealing the president's lips.
"Yes, no, I, this is, there's an ongoing legal proceeding which precludes me from talking a lot about the case," the president finally managed to say. All he could answer, Bush said, was that he declassified a National Intelligence Estimate because "it made sense for people to see the truth."
That answer neatly encapsulated the White House's response to the CIA leak imbroglio: No comment and non sequitur.
As for the non sequitur, it's true that Bush declassified the NIE, on July 18, 2003. But this was after vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had done his leaking -- with Bush and Vice President Cheney's blessing, Libby has testified. And the NIE said nothing about administration critic Joseph C. Wilson IV and his CIA-employed wife, whose unmasking started the whole scandal.
Nor is the White House's no-comment ending the questioning. Bush had no problem commenting on an ongoing legal proceeding when he said he believed that Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the indicted former House majority leader, was innocent. "Presidential prerogative," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said then.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, recommends that Bush exercise his prerogative again. "I think that there has to be a detailed explanation precisely as to what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him, and an explanation from the president as to what he said so that it can be evaluated," Specter said on "Fox News Sunday."
The White House, evidently, is unmoved by Specter's suggestion. McClellan referred 16 times in his briefings yesterday to the "ongoing" leak case as his reason for not commenting -- as when CBS News's Bill Plante tried to plumb the timing of the leaks.
"You're getting into questions about an ongoing legal proceeding," the spokesman warned.
"No, it's a timing question," the reporter corrected.
"We are not going to comment on it while it's ongoing," McClellan persisted.
"I'm not asking about the investigation," Plante pointed out.
"We're not going to do anything that would jeopardize an ongoing matter," came the inevitable reply.
As the questioning continued, McClellan offered that he would like nothing more than to dish about the leak case. "It's not a question of whether or not we would like to talk more about it," he pleaded.
The silence on the leaks is quite at odds with the president's increasingly garrulous public personality. His Iraq speeches are growing more frequent, and more confessional. "We have learned from our mistakes," he confided to the SAIS crowd, which answered each of his usual applause lines with silence.
Students signed and circulated an anti-Bush petition before the event, but the president, his jacket open, stepping away from the lectern, retained good cheer even punting difficult questions.
"I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it's kind of convenient in this case," he said when referring to the Pentagon a question about Iraq military contractors.
"I get protested all the time," he said cheerfully when asked about his "polarizing" presidency.
Asked about prostitution and human trafficking, he offered: "I will be glad to call Condi."
When a student rose and said he was studying "international energy policy," Bush, anticipating an energy question, interjected: "Oh, good!"
But it was not good. The student asked about Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's filing claiming "evidence of a concerted effort by the White House to punish Joseph Wilson."
The president hitched up his suit pants by the belt. He took a sip of water. He stepped away from the podium, then leaned on it with his left elbow.
He put his fingers to his heart when he spoke about declassifying the NIE. "I thought it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying," he reasoned.
That was preceded and followed by the no comment. "You're just going to have to let Mr. Fitzgerald complete his case," Bush said.
By that standard, Bush may not have to comment until sometime after 2008. ¶ 11.4.06
