Think Progress

Laura Bush demanded the truth

By Judd Legum on Dec 14th, 2006 at 5:03 pm

Laura Bush demanded the truth

about Iraq. WWE wrestlers deliver on Fox:

WWE


61 Responses to “Laura Bush demanded the truth”

  1. Ugh says:

    What? The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader were’nt available for the fact finding mission?


  2. unbelievable says:

    Be careful what you wish for…


  3. Zooey says:

    *hanging head in shame*


  4. Art says:

    The truth…
    Gulp!
    She can’t handle the truth!

    Not from this guy…


  5. Kevin says:

    I don’t see a problem with asking someone that was in Iraq how things are in Iraq.


  6. gmnotyet says:

    Link to video is not working!


  7. hil says:

    this would be funny… if it wasnt so damn sad


  8. Zooey says:

    Caption:

    Guy on the left: Crap! How did THAT tape get in there?
    I thought I had it hidden….


  9. S.D. says:



    I swear, I thought the man on the Right was the Arnold, the Goverator!


  10. Judd says:

    There’s no video, I decided not to subject you guys to that.


  11. Jonathon says:

    They are grasping at an ever-dwindling set of straws. The reality of Iraq is just too much for them to maintain their fantasy of progress and “good news”.

    Who cares one whit if our troops are building schools in Iraq? How does that “progress” measure against the daily horrors of the kidnappings, the summary executions, the outright slaughter of Sunni by Shi’a and vice-versa? Besides…. I don’t recall being told that we were going to Iraq to do “nation building”. I thought we were there to protect ourselves against Saddam’s WMDs – which clearly don’t exist.

    The end is near, folks. Popular support for the war is almost nil. Support for Bush is also practically nil. Only the hard-right dead-enders still think he’s doing a good job. Soon he will have no choice but to pull out, even if his wife and dog still support him.

    Faux News can parade wrestlers or even rodeo clowns across the screen, but it doesn’t change the fact that the lives of our troops are being wasted each and every day on a unwinnable “war”. Get our people out of harm’s way and let the Iraqi’s have their civil war. It’s gonna happen no matter what we do.

    Just wait… next it will be Nascar drivers. What a joke.


  12. bushllit says:

    fake news + fake sports = an all too real government


  13. unbelievable says:

    There’s no video, I decided not to subject you guys to that.
    Comment by Judd — December 14, 2006 @ 5:17 pm

    You’re a kind man Judd Legum :)


  14. Zooey says:

    There’s no video, I decided not to subject you guys to that.
    Comment by Judd

    Bless you…


  15. unbelievable says:

    I don’t see a problem with asking someone that was in Iraq how things are in Iraq.
    Comment by Kevin — December 14, 2006 @ 5:13 pm

    Just as long as they are on your side, right Kevin?


  16. Tuber says:

    As if we needed proof of our collective insanity, we now have a phony news outlet sending phony athletes to a phony war zone to get phony feel-good stories.

    Sure, most folks here will see right through this stuff but the 30% plus of Americans who are so brainwashed that they think we are re-fighting WWII will lap this stuff up like its candy soup.

    Our generation, my friends, is allowing this nation to fall into a pit of shame that I’m beginning to doubt that we will be able to come out of. Our responsibility as citizens does not end at the voting booth, it starts there. I believe that we need to start organizing something massive. Any thoughts? Other than silly jokes and whimsical comments about steroid journalists? Please.


  17. RUCerious says:

    Judd – rats! I was hoping I’d hear one of these wrestler guys call W a “pencil necked geek”!!


  18. Tobey Tall says:

    Gods sake will you lot impeach Bush and get him OUT OF THE WAY FOREVER – end this bloody war on non terror


  19. AshenShard says:

    That’s right boys in girls, what we need are comments from someone who provides the American people with an entertaining, unscripted show … oh, wait nevermind.


  20. JPV says:

    Sigh… the sooner the human race wipes itself off of the planet, the better.

    We are beyond hope.


  21. Tuber says:

    There’s no video, I decided not to subject you guys to that.
    Comment by Judd

    A moment of sanity within a cesspool of “What the f*ck!!”. Thank you.


  22. WC says:

    I don’t see a problem with asking someone that was in Iraq how things are in Iraq.

    Comment by Kevin — December 14, 2006 @ 5:13 pm

    Then you don’t have a problem with an actor who is a Democrat speaking out against the war and the President, right? See, Fox News does.

    Several years ago the “anchors” of Fox and Friends commented that Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon just needed to keep their mouths shut when it came to speaking out against the war, because they were, you know, ACTORS who had no idea about politics.

    Yet several days later they invite Charlie Daniels onto the show, who wrote a pro-war song, and what is the first thing they ask him? “So what do you think about the war?”


  23. doenuts says:

    Does the unpopularity of the war mean that I can listen to the Dixie chicks again?


  24. Joefriday says:

    Gotta do it-Caption- guy on left= Whooaa! he’s totally naked.


  25. unbelievable says:

    Gotta do it-Caption- guy on left= Whooaa! he’s totally naked.
    Comment by Joefriday — December 14, 2006 @ 5:35 pm

    It’s FAUX… So it’s probably more like:

    Yaaaaaaaay! he’s totally naked.

    :D


  26. The Other National Anthem says:

    Caption:
    WOW!!!
    Man, what’re yer eatin’ to get it that BIG?!?!?!


  27. Briseadh na Faire says:

    Piecing together what I’ve heard from disparate sources, we’re in a bad way, and there’s no good solution.

    The current power structure in Iraq wants us to stay, because we keep them in power. Meanwhile, there is a slow hemmorage of Shiite and Sunni blood, and the occasional American casualty.

    Iran would like us to leave, giving it a free hand to support the Shiites in an ethnic cleansing of the Sunnis.

    Saudi Arabia won’t sit still for that and has promised to give massive aid to the Sunnis. (Saudia Arabia has a lot of toys it purchased from the U.S., by the way.)

    Any withdrawl which allows the Shiites to commit genocide will result in a regional war.

    Yet staying and waiting it out will take decades.


  28. Joefriday says:

    Yet staying and waiting it out will take decades.

    Comment by Briseadh na Faire — December 14, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
    Well put and exactly or, another way “That’s it in a nut shell”-”Between a rock and a hard spot”. I’m afraid bushco is going to send in the McCain 20,000. Maybe they should read Kipling.


  29. Xenon says:

    So, Fox has resorted to hiring professional choreographed brawlers as foreign correspondents? Couldn’t be any worse than having monkeys like Wallace swinging around the joint…


  30. kelso says:

    FOX viewers probably think professional wrestling is real too.


  31. Joefriday says:

    FOX viewers probably think professional wrestling is real too.

    Comment by kelso — December 14, 2006 @ 6:12 pm

    Know what’s funny-most of the people I know (Includes family) that watch wrestling vote for the rethugs and love O’Lielly. Really-I’m not making this up.


  32. Bluedog49 says:

    Laura Bush: “It’s hurtful that the Iraqis don’t appreciate our sacrifice.”

    Spoken like a true sociopath.


  33. Rebel In CA says:

    Judd:

    You took away my afternoon laugh. Put the video back; I need to LMAO


  34. Rebel In CA says:

    This would be an absolute laugh riot if it was O’Falafel interviewing the WWE steroid-men.


  35. Snowball says:

    Yeah, what about the good news? Didn’t they paint a school house somewhere? That ought to be worth the lives of nearly 3000 US troops and 100,000 Iraqis or more.


  36. Zooey says:

    Yeah, what about the good news?

    Comment by Snowball

    Um, overpopulation is becoming less of a problem?


  37. Spudd says:

    Are they serious?! ROFLMAO….these guys are a bunch of clowns.


  38. PatrioticLiberalChristian(PLC) says:

    WWF = Weapons of W’s Fantasy


  39. Vincennes says:

    I say Rowdy Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog and Hulk Hogan form an investigative foreign correspondence team and not only report the truth but kick the Iraqi insurgents collective asses.


  40. Briseadh na Faire says:

    I’m all for the truth. Try this on for size:

    Leahy threatens to subpoena Bush officials

    The incoming Senate judiciary chair says he’ll use the oversight tool if they refuse requests for papers and testimony.

    By Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times

    WASHINGTON — The incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that he would subpoena Bush administration officials if they refused requests for documents and testimony, including two long-sought memos detailing its detention and treatment of terrorism suspects overseas.

    The comments by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) represent the strongest and most specific statements yet directed at the White House on the investigative agenda of the Democratic leaders poised to assume control of Congress in January.

    Leahy’s threat shows the depth of frustration among Democrats who believe the administration has withheld crucial details about some of the most provocative anti-terrorism moves since the Sept. 11 attacks.

    “I expect to get the answers. If I don’t … then I really think we should subpoena,” Leahy said after a speech at Georgetown law school. “If the president wants to claim executive authority, then let him do so, and then we can determine where we go from there.”

    The remarks signaled a possible legal confrontation with the White House over what Democrats and many legal scholars view as its expansive and unchecked use of executive power. It also marks a possible return to the use of an oversight tool that has been all but forgotten by the Republican-led Congress over the first six years of the Bush administration.

    “I’m not trying to set up the idea of a confrontation for the sake of a confrontation,” Leahy said. “I hope people will pay attention, will answer questions. We’ll try it that way first.”

    Leahy has his sights set on two administration documents that have been among the most controversial for human rights and civil liberties groups concerned about the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war.

    One is a presidential order signed by Bush authorizing the CIA to set up secret prisons outside the United States to house terrorism suspects. The other is a 2002 Justice Department memorandum outlining “aggressive interrogation techniques” that could be used against terrorism suspects.

    Though the two documents have been known about for years, the Bush administration has kept them under wraps, only acknowledging their existence this fall after Bush transferred 14 detainees from the prisons to the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for possible trials.

    Leahy has made a number of sweeping demands for documents about the treatment of detainees from the Justice Department and other agencies, only to have most of them returned unanswered. Last month, he made a request to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales for the presidential order and Justice Department memo. Leahy said he expected Gonzales to testify before the judiciary committee “soon.”

    Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Wednesday that the request was being reviewed.

    “The department will continue to work closely with the Congress as they exercise their oversight functions, and we will appropriately respond,” Roehrkasse said, adding that the department would work with the committee “to provide information that it legitimately needs.”

    “In the past we’ve reached accommodations, and working together we expect we can do so in the future as well,” he said.

    The issuance of subpoenas would mark a new and combative chapter in that relationship.

    For years, the Republican-controlled Congress has relied on the administration to voluntarily provide testimony and documents, reinforcing its reputation, at least among Democrats, as a rubber stamp for Bush policies. The judiciary committee has issued subpoenas in recent years, but they have tended to target private firms rather than government figures.

    Though Leahy said he would appeal to the administration’s sense of bipartisanship, he also indicated that Congress might not hesitate to ensure compliance with its requests.

    Legal experts said the most effective way to enforce a subpoena is to use the power to withhold funds from administration projects or to refuse to consider nominees who require Senate approval — courses that Leahy said the committee would consider.

    “Congress has the ability to make sure that the president does what the Constitution requires him to do to faithfully execute the laws,” he said.

    Leahy also said he would press for more information about the administration’s domestic surveillance program under which the National Security Agency has monitored communications between suspected terrorists abroad and people in the U.S. without first obtaining a warrant.

    Congress considered legislation this fall that would essentially ratify the controversial program, which one federal court has found to violate the Constitution. But Leahy said he could not support any such legislation until he knew more about the program.

    Leahy also promised tougher legislation to crack down on war profiteering by private contractors in Iraq, and restrictions on the government’s ability to secretly collect dossiers on airline travelers. He said he would push to overturn portions of the new Military Commissions Act of 2006 that stripped terrorism suspects of the right of habeas corpus to challenge their detention in the courts.

    He also said he would set up a new judiciary subcommittee to oversee international human rights issues, including torture.

    “This election was an intervention,” he said. “The American people rose up to take away Congress’ rubber stamp, and to demand a new direction with more accountability.”


  41. Casey says:

    I don’t get it … where’s the video/transcript?


  42. Casey says:

    Where is the video and/or transcript?


  43. Zooey says:

    Casey,

    See #10. No video, just a screen shot.


  44. Zooey says:

    Briseadh na Faire,

    Good article, thanks.


  45. Briseadh na Faire says:

    Zooey, thank Sen. Leahy!


  46. Briseadh na Faire says:

    Off topic, but my students averaged 92% on their Constitution Test. In other words, my class of 8th graders knows way more about the Constitution than the trolls here!


  47. margaret says:

    Hmmmm, still not sure what people see in watching half-naked musclehead pseudo-cowboys pose and spout nonsense. Not sure who their audience is either. But I’m sure he must be very up on foreign policy – did he venture beyond the green zone do you think? I mean, without being in an armored hummer surrounded by guns?


  48. Juan C says:

    In other words, my class of 8th graders knows way more about the Constitution than the trolls here!
    Comment by Briseadh na Faire

    Its called studying.


  49. Juan C says:

    Heh. Even Fox says:

    WWE stars back from Iraq with “real” story on troops.

    Now, Judd, I would like to read what the wrestler said. Can it be done?


  50. Zooey says:

    Its called studying.
    Comment by Juan C

    And a teacher who cares.


  51. JPark says:

    #15 Unbelievable, don’t bother, that was a hit and run. Too bad for Kevin his Schwinn doesn’t pack a very big punch.


  52. JPark says:

    To be fair Fux did put quotes around “real” but I don’t think that means what they think it does.


  53. kilk says:

    Fox (so called) News is a cult.


  54. Cwhitt says:

    And fittingly, it’s the former host of a finance show on CNBC and Fox News that got fired from said show for making Nazi gestures in Germany as part of a WWE show who plays up his stock trading abilities, the fact he’s from Texas, and his love of President Bush and his policies, not one of those evil immigrants or talented Hispanic wrestlers providing commentary here.


  55. Evil Spaniard says:

    This hulk on the left is the next substitute of Jeff Gannon? Looks perfect for the job: no brain, big muscles, naked and a texan hat…


  56. CoffinsDrapedWithFlags says:

    Were the wrestlers allowed out of the Green Zone so that they could do an accurate evaluation of the situation?


  57. upside00 says:

    Is that guy on the right in the Dubya hat Ted Haggard’s boyfriend? (Just wondering)

    And will the last single-digited IQers still watching Faux News please identify yoursleves?


  58. Jake says:

    She should send Barney the dog on a fact finding mission to Iraq.


  59. jethrosexual says:

    The guy on the right is John Layfield, well-known for playing a right wing Buchananite character, complete with anti-gay and anti-Latino rhetoric. It’s easy for him, because, as he admits, he’s that way in real life. Layfield has also been dogged by rumors of being a closet case, because of bizarre stories of bullying hazing rituals he likes to put younger wrestlers through in the locker room. See comment #68 above.

    The character was thought up by Vince McMahon himself, who is a well-known Hummer-driving Republican who makes his wrestlers work as independent contractors – no unions, no health insurance, etc. He even fired one guy (recently rehired, though) who was a couple months into a year-long recuperation period for neck fusion surgery with the well-wishing, “Hope you’ve saved some money.”

    Vince has used the “blame the media for not reporting the good news” angle before, so it’s no surprise to see his pet redneck Layfield out repeating it after WWE’s annual Xmas trip to Iraq.


  60. Whitey HermAphrodite says:

    I certainly think I’m not alone in my belief that a steroid addled man who gives other men wedgies for a living and wears diapers to work is a perfectly reliable and credible source of information.


  61. Whitey HermAphrodite says:

    I really have to say, the desparation of this administration and their Republican National News cronies is really becoming more and more amusing each day.. they hate that the youth is laughing at bush’s idiocy on the Daily Show and they are desparately, and laughably trying to look cool. Sorry dudes, there isnt enough trash in Texas or the United States to save your miserable administration. Maybe if you start scouring the trailer parks for stem cells you can make yourself an army of dittohead redneck zombies.



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