Fox News loves to pander to racists by mocking black people. All this really reveals is how amazingly white and out of touch Fox News is with pop culture. Case in point is Dana Perino's rap. Perino's attemp at hip hop fails on an epic scale. The fact that the rest of the Fox News panel thinks that Perino's freestyle skills are good proves that they have never listened to a hip hop record in their lives.
President Bush staged an unannounced farwewll visit to Iraq. The President was holding press conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Muthathar al Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President Bush. In Ababic culture, the bottom of the shoe is considered an insult. Both shoes missed Bush. "This is a farewell kiss, dog," al Zaidi told Bush.
The Secret Service subdued al Zaidi. White House Press Sec. Dana Perino was hit with a microphone during the melee. Perino has a minor black eye.
Bush told Helen Thomas, "I didn't feel the least threatened by it." The incident does make me wonder about the Secret Service's response. al Zaidi was 12 feet away and had time to throw both shoes. He could have fired several rounds at Bush. The Secret Service have an extremely difficult job. However, the response time (in a war-torn country) demands a reassessment of security.
The Bush administration has taken great pains to avoid using the word recession. White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto and White House Press Secretary Dana Perino avoided the word.
“The classic definition of a recession is not something that we could determine now, or forecast. It’s something that people look back on.”
Fratto punted in front of the White House Press Corp.
The White House economists have equal dread for the R word. "Recessions are things that are declared by other people — National Bureau of Economic Research." Edward Lazear, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Unfortunately for Lazear, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a report that the United States has been in a recession since December of 2007.
The committee identified December 2007 as the peak month, after determining that the subsequent decline in economic activity was large enough to qualify as a recession.
Payroll employment, the number of filled jobs in the economy based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ large survey of employers, reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined in every month since then. An alternative measure of employment, measured by the BLS’s household survey, reached a peak in November 2007, declined early in 2008, expanded temporarily in April to a level below its November 2007 peak, and has declined in every month since April 2008. For a discussion of the difference between payroll and household survey employment measures, see Mary Bowler and Teresa L. Morisi, “Understanding the Employment Measures from the CPS and CES Surveys,” Monthly Labor Review, February 2006, pp. 23–38.
"Our economy is in a recession," Bush said flatly, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn only hours after the release of a government report showing the biggest month of job losses in 34 years. "This is in large part because of severe problems in our housing, credit and financial markets, which have resulted in significant job losses."
While repeatedly listing the serious problems in the economy, the White House has refused to embrace the actual term until Monday, when a panel for the National Bureau of Economic Research said the recession began last December and is ongoing.
Admitting there is a problem is the first step towards a solution. The Bush administration admits nothing. That is why the insurgency in Iraq happened. In 2005, Dick Cheney said the Iraq insurgency was in the "last throes." That doesn't explain why President-elect Barack Obama will inherit two wars and a recession.
Update:Crooks and Liars has video of Bush saying the R Word. Bush did everything to downplay the recession.
"We're working with the Federal Reserve and FDIC, and credit is beginning to move. A market that was frozen is thawing. There's still more work to do. But there are some encouraging signs."
What thawing is Bush talking about? 533,000 jobs were lost in November. Those aren't people that are going to do their patriotic duty of shopping?
Via Matt Yglesias. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report into the Bush administration pre-Iraq war claims tells us what has been reported in the media. The White House made shit up to sell the war.
* Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.
* Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.
* Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.
* Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.
* The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
* The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.
Congressional Democrats share the blame. The case was always weak and Democrats failed to ask difficult questions. Democrats did not want to look weak and national security. Bush was given carte blanche because of political spinelessness, on the part Democrats.
Update: the Phase Two report is online. Dana Perino argues that the White House wasn't getting proper information from the intelligence community. I like to hear her explanation of Dick Cheney's visit to the CIA.
Perino's argument that the White House doesn't lie about intelligence is another grand lie. Donald Rumsfeld, on Face the Nation that he never described Iraq as an "immediate threat." Thomas Friedman directly quotes Rumsfeld using those very words. Rumsfeld still wouldn't fess up. Lying is hardwired into the DNA of these people.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino is the gift that keeps on giving. Perino compares the chaos in Iraq to Florida and Michigan not being allowed to seat delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Talk about lame strawman arguments.
"Politics are alive and well in Iraq," she said, defending President Bush's troop surge. "I think some people who are throwing stones ought to look at the primary system in our country, especially on the Democratic side, where you have two states where - Florida and Michigan - where they're figuring out whether or not to seat those delegates. Politics happens. And that's what -- it happens in the United States and it's certainly happening in Iraq. It's not a bad thing that they're having debates about their constitution."
Florida and Michigan residents are not getting killed daily with IEDs and ethnic purgings. Democracy is so bad in Iraq that millions have fled for Syria and Jordan. The Sunday Times reports on a refugee camp in Qawala. Children wear plastic bags on their shoes because they have no shoes. The refugees live near raw sewage. These people are scared that they will be killed if they go home.
Along with the internally displaced, another 2m Iraqis have fled the country, mostly to Jordan and Syria. They include many of Iraq’s best and brightest. Only about 36,000 have returned, despite the fall in violence in recent months attributed to the troop “surge”.
Iraq is not a democracy. For Perino to suggest otherwise is insulting.
White House Will Never Run Out of Reasons Not to Talk About Libby
On December 10, 2007, White House Press Sec. Dana Perino was asked about Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The White House previously said couldn't comment on Libby while the courts were reviewing his case. Libby dropped his appeal that day and the press corp asked Perino about President Bush's saying he would fire anyone involved in leaking Valerie Plame identity. The grand jury investigation proved that Karl Rove and Libby leaked to the media. Bush fired neither.
Q Okay. Well, now that the appeal -- there is no longer any appeal, can you speak to what the President thinks about Scooter Libby disclosing the name of a CIA official?
MS. PERINO: I did not have a chance to talk to -- chance to speak to the President after this announcement was made this morning, and so I don't have his immediate reaction. He gave a lengthy statement in July in regards to the commutation and so I'll have to refer you to that for now.
Q But he didn't talk about what Scooter Libby had actually done in that --
MS. PERINO: And as I said, I haven't spoken to the President about it, so I'm not able to provide you anything else at this moment.
Watch the video. It is one of the lamest performances I have ever seen by a Press secretary.
Perino now had a whole day to ask Bush how he feels about Libby. What is the new excuse.
Q Have you had a chance yet to speak with the President about Scooter Libby since he dropped his appeal?
MS. PERINO: Well, you might have missed the gaggle, but I'll refer you to those comments I made in the gaggle.
Q Okay. And yesterday you said that you weren't allowed to characterize the President's reaction to the CIA tape destruction story. Who stopped you from characterizing the President's reaction?
MS. PERINO: As I said before, the Counsel's Office has requested that we not make any further comment beyond what I've already said; so that's where it came from.
The grand jury investigation has ended. Special Counsel Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has said he will not attempt to bring new indictments. What possible legal reason is there for Bush not answering why he didn't fire Rove and Libby like he promised.
That is all a smoke screen of gotta journalism. Rationale people have learned long ago that Bush doesn't give a shit about the law. What the press should hammer Bush on is Libby telling the grand jury the President "specifically had authorized" the leak.
Former White House pinata Scott McClellan states that Bush had him say vouch that Libby and Rove were not involved in the leak.
So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
There was one problem. It was not true.
Very cool, right?
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself.
Bush doesn't want to talk about Libby because he is responsible for the Plame leak.
Update:Bill O'Reilly sends Fox News goons to McClellan's house. My favorite part of the video is O'Reily saying, unlike CNN and MSNBC, Foc News actually does reporting.
Appearing on National Public Radio's light-hearted quiz show "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me," which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- and she didn't know what it was.
"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."
So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "
White House Press Secretary Dan Perino can't comment on why interrogation tapes were destroyed because the CIA is gathering facts. CIA Director Michael Hayden is gathering facts for destoying evidence? WTF.
Perino says the White House is supportive of Hayden's decision. Why gather facts for tapes the White House and Hayden admit should have been destroyed? This is a cover story.
It's a Dana Perino day at Pushing Rope. Plus, she is really getting on my nerves. She is asked if Congress should have a voice about Iraq. Perino uses the question as an opportunity to attack Harry Reid and Americans against the war.
One thing that concerned me today is I heard that Senator Reid said that the President is in denial about the war. And I think that any quick glance in the mirror would show him that he's in denial on several things -- that Senator Reid is.
First of all, he's in denial about the enemy that we face. This is a vicious and brutal enemy that wants to kill innocent men, women and children of Iraq, people who enjoy and love freedom, and that includes Americans. So it's not in our long-term national security interests in order to not deal with this enemy now.
Secondly, he's in denial about the conflict that we are in, how al Qaeda is inciting sectarian violence. He is in denial about the new Baghdad security plan and the new changes that we've implemented in al Anbar province. He's also in denial that a surrender date he thinks is a good idea. It is not a good idea. It is defeat. It is a death sentence for the millions of Iraqis who voted for a constitution, who voted for a government, who voted for a free and democratic society.
We all want the Iraqis to move faster, to do more and to do it faster, in terms of their political reconciliations. But they're just not ready to do it yet. And Americans are not the type that walk away in times of hardship. To leave people in Iraq flailing and defenseless against an enemy who is determined to kill them. And withdrawal is like crying "uncle," it's giving up. And I can assure you they are diluting themselves if they think that offering a surrender date is in the long-term strategic interests of this country. It is not.
Perino cites no evidence that Reid does not understand that terrorists are vicious. It is a long-used talking point that no longer packs punch. The Bushies are viewed by Americans as clueless about Iraq.
Perino calls a timetable a "surrender date." That rhetoric would pack more punch if the White House actually had a winning strategy. They don't. That is why they go after people who disagree with them so aggressively. It's the only trick in their bag and they are going to keep using it.
The most troubling part of Perino's statement.
We all want the Iraqis to move faster, to do more and to do it faster, in terms of their political reconciliations. But they're just not ready to do it yet.
Then what is the point? There has never been a sense of urgency by the White House to get the Sunnis and Shites to sit down and work out their differences. The surge is pointless if the two ethnic factions continue to engage in civil war.
Dana Perino's explanation for President Bush's increased confidence in Alberto Gonzales in mind-blowing.
Q There were about 64 variations, according to some accounts in the media, 64 variations of "I don't recall," "I don't remember. So what about that testimony in which he said "I don't recall," some variation, 64 times, that made the President say he now has increased confidence in the Attorney General?
MS. PERINO: Look, Ed, I think that you had testimony that lasted I don't know how many hours, over seven hours, and so many of those questions were repeated over and over. And the Attorney General, who is an honorable and honest man answered truthfully. And I think that's all that we can ask of any public servant or any of us in this room.
Perino's reasoning is that Gonzales was asked the same questions too many times. She avoids dealing the the subject of Gonzales's faulty memory. That's not good spinning. Just a lame excuse about the performance of an Attorney General who had a month to prepare for his testimony. Perino also fails to explain what was it about Gonzales's performance that gave Bush greater confidence.
Even Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee didn't feel Gonzales was truthful. Any other administration would have fired Gonzales by now.
The White House's defense of Alberto Gonzales just gets more hysterical. Dana Perino gave me the best laugh of the day.
He is our number one crime fighter. He has done so much to help keep this country safe from terrorists. He has worked determinately to prevent predators from attacking our children. He has worked -- they have a fantastic record of fighting corruption in government and in keeping gang violence off our streets.
