[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus]
What’s getting overlooked is how stupid McCain’s statement is if it were true. I mean, whoo-hoo! there are some (not many, not most, not all…just some) neighborhoods in Bagdad it is safe to walk in.
BLOCK PARTY!!!
[/QUOTE]
Here’s McCain “strolling” around Baghdad with the accompanyment of “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead”. And he’s wearing a bulletproof vest.
He’d better hope the Dems force and Iraq withdrawl before election season, because if we’re still in Iraq that footage is going come back with a vengence in campaign commercials.
[QUOTE=Malodorous]
Here’s McCain “strolling” around Baghdad with the accompanyment of “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead”. And he’s wearing a bulletproof vest.
He’d better hope the Dems force and Iraq withdrawl before election season, because if we’re still in Iraq that footage is going come back with a vengence in campaign commercials.
[/QUOTE]
Damn, McCain was right! You can take a stroll down a Baghdad street in peace and safety - if a good chunk of the U.S. Army has your back, and your front, and both sides, and controls the airspace overhead.
Nothin’ to it. 
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
People who report myth as fact annoy me. CNN isn’t ‘now’ deciding anything. If people would watch it rather than choosing to believe that it’s ‘another Fox’, they would have seen that, for quite a while, Blitzer, Cafferty, and a few others have been calling the Administration’s bluff at every opportunity. They also invite the righties on to parrot the Pubbie talking points, but it was a CNN panel that Novak walked off when he was called on his BS.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve watched it. It’s another Fox. Well that’s a bit harsh. It’s Fox Lite.
A few months after Katrina, in a report highlighting it and other recent natural disasters, I watched Blitzer ask Pat Robertson if “God was angry.”
I also cannot forget the nonsensical ‘terrorist threat at football stadiums’ internet meme being highlighted by CNN and given coverage on knowledge that the DHS told them ‘the threat has no credibility.’ Granted, CNN did not spend the 10 minutes Fox did, nor did they interview a person who referred to a flash cartoon site as a ‘jihadist chat room,’ but they did make a strong effort to rouse the culture of fear.
Holy crap. What a set McCain has on him.
Just saw a clip of that press conference, where an Iraqi reporter asks McCain about his line about areas that are safe to walk in.
“I just came from one now.”
Smug prick. I can’t believe I used to think he was an exemplar of a politician with integrity.
I know wishing death on folks is frowned upon, but I would sincerly like to see him dropped in the middle of that shithole without the benefit of all the government armour and meat-shields. That’s not quite the same, is it?
Who am I kidding? Of course it is.
Dear John, you have officially used up all of your P.O.W. respect points. Get fragged.
[QUOTE=Malodorous]
Here’s McCain “strolling” around Baghdad with the accompanyment of “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead”. And he’s wearing a bulletproof vest.
[/QUOTE]
What’s the problem? That’s how I always stroll around downtown Chicago. 
[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
Damn, McCain was right! You can take a stroll down a Baghdad street in peace and safety - if a good chunk of the U.S. Army has your back, and your front, and both sides, and controls the airspace overhead.
Nothin’ to it.
[/QUOTE]
Besides, I read in my paper that this market was a particularily protected one. Following a bombing that caused many deaths (37 or 137, can’t remember) in the market some months ago, the area is fortified and all traffic is forbidden there.
I notice on Youtube the smear campaign on Michael Ware has got off to a rickerty start. I’m sure it’ll pick up when “questions” about his tax returns “emerge”.
Off on a tangent, but it’ll be interesting to see how the British MOD deal with Troop Commander Windsor’s deployment with the Blues and Royals between Basra and Iraq-Iran border.
You can put the marmalade on McCain now, he is truly toast. One gets the impression that he is getting a little desperate, his campaign has no traction and he can say or do nothing to change his fate. Time for him to quit the campaign and go back to being a Senator with a conscience.
[QUOTE=Elsie]
I notice on Youtube the smear campaign on Michael Ware has got off to a rickerty start. I’m sure it’ll pick up when “questions” about his tax returns “emerge”.
[/QUOTE]
Indeed. Here’s a link to the story and the video you’re probably talking about.
The Times today had interviews with some of the vendors at that market, who noted that they chased the Iraqis out before the Americans came in. They close early now since it isn’t safe to go home after dark. In other words, they agree McCain is full of shit.
Maybe this will be McCain’s tank moment.
[QUOTE=Gentle Robot]
A few months after Katrina, in a report highlighting it and other recent natural disasters, I watched Blitzer ask Pat Robertson if “God was angry.”
[/quote]
And you don’t think Wolfie was baiting Robertson?
Take a couple of deep breaths. I doubt there’s a news station that hasn’t succumbed at least once to the ‘drive up the ratings with Scary Stuff’ temptation (or order from On High). If you’re going to dismiss a whole network and all its correspondents and anchors based on that, well…
Scrabble tip, folks: ‘jihad’ can really get you out of a tight spot - tuck it away in Dictionary Corner.
FWIW, McCain lost his credibility with me seven years ago when he referred to Louis Farrakhan-an anti-choice, anti-feminist homophobe who is distrustful of the social safety net-as being “on the left”.
I just can’t believe how politically tone deaf McCain must be to have done this.
All he had to do was get on with some sympathetic interviewer and say that he misspoke, that he overstated the case, and that what he meant to say was that everyday life goes on in the streets of Baghdad, etc, etc.
Both he and Newt Gingrich (whose “Oh, I wasn’t talking about Spanish when I said that bilingual education was teaching children the language of the ghetto” was pure comedy gold) need to learn the first rule of holes–when you’re in a hole, stop digging.
[QUOTE=Jackmannii]
The fact that CNN and other media don’t have the balls to make strong editorial statements doesn’t let them off the hook for this lapse. Viewers deserve an apology and Ware should be told that if he can’t control himself on air, he can find work elsewhere.
[/QUOTE]
Do you have the word “tool” stamped on your forehead? If not someone correct this oversight pronto.
It’s really more like “inspires” than “emboldens.”
[QUOTE=Dan Norder]
Do you have the word “tool” stamped on your forehead? If not someone correct this oversight pronto.
[/QUOTE]
Yup.
Of course, it’s been nine days and the thread still stays on the top page of the Pit.
I wonder how many of the polite, subtle corrections that reporters have been offering had that kind of lasting impact. Oh, right. None.
Bad reporter!
-Joe
