Video: Cheney defends “last throes” comment

posted at 2:50 pm on June 19, 2006 by Allahpundit

Taking the long view at the National Press Club.


Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Too early to celebrate, but he may be on track. Let’s hope we have reached a turning point. We must remember, however, that there is a lot of fighting yet to complete the victory.

dman on June 19, 2006 at 5:58 PM

I think we won in Iraq when Bush won in 2004. The only strategy the terrorists ever had was to use our own media to convince us to retreat, and I knew Bush wouldn’t retreat before the job was done.

Jason on June 19, 2006 at 7:16 PM

Bush is weird. We have won the war the moment Saddam was toppled.

It is the aftermath that we have to take care. He let the liberals dictate the use of words by agreeing that there is still a war in Iraq.

The definition of a war is that you have to have two sides, each side having its own armed forces and the battle must be conducted under the Geneva convention.

Saddam’s armed force was wiped out long time ago. The insurgents ( another bad word. It should be terrorist) are not an armed force. They are terrorists!

The war was won long time ago.

In all aspect, Cheney has been modest.

But allowing the MSM to redefine the aftermath clean up as war, the terrorists as insurgents, and helping Iraq to secure their country as occupation, is a grave failure of the White House. Tony Snow has the responsibility to fix it.

easy87us on June 19, 2006 at 7:29 PM

Well put, easy. Thankfully, the military has had more victories than the Bush administration has had with the media. But how could he win with that crowd? And they still hold significant control over dissemination of information to the American public. We have Hot Air and other blogs to more accurate information, but how many of those people abandoning Bush in polls don’t?

insomni on June 19, 2006 at 7:53 PM

Bravo, easy87. And yer right: Tony Snow is the best opportunity to get that point across clearly.

Tuning Spork on June 19, 2006 at 9:19 PM

Last throes? You better, you better, you bet.

There’s a Storm on the Way…

http://www.se7ensamurai.com/cool/mp3s/gbsc.mp3

venmax on June 19, 2006 at 9:50 PM

Thanks guys. I am going to get me another beer. I am feeling darn good today because they found there was no cover up in the Haditha investigation.

Next our boys will be exonerated, I am sure.

easy87us on June 19, 2006 at 11:10 PM

The FOX reporter just used the word “war”.

I tell you, the FOX news have some really liberal reporters. Major Garret is really bad.

easy87us on June 20, 2006 at 12:05 AM

easy87us
I’d say Sheperd Smth is the worst one with his ow show on there. But even O’Reilly is leaning more to the left tha he used to. Its finally driven me to seek news almost exclusivly online.

Rowane on June 20, 2006 at 12:34 AM

Hey, whether he was right or wrong, it doesn’t matter.

Point is: He doesn’t want to be portrayed as a “flipfloper” like you know who.

That’s all that is to it.

CatholicConservative on June 20, 2006 at 7:59 AM

Rowane – I’m with you, I stopped watching all TV news long ago, including FOX.

I get my news strictly from Blogs and Talk Radio (the NEW Media!! huraaah!)

When I was in the Navy, in intelligence for 20 years, I witnessed first-hand that news reports were about 95% inaccurate…. maybe They got 5-10% of what was really going on..

Here’s an analogy – have you ever been on a team or some group that someone wrote a story about? (ie: sports game, some event, etc) – how often have you read the article and the writer, even though they witnessed the game themselves and got quotes from players and coaches, yet they still got the story wrong, or missed the most important part, or just don’t know the real or full story behind the team, decisions, or what happened, etc.

It happens all the time. Well, multiply that by 10,000 and it’s easy to see why it’s impossible for the media to know what’s really happening when it comes to our national security..

The pentagon and Defense department use highly classified reports to make decisions to monitor or counter any problem. The public and the media don’t have access to these reports, therefore, it’s impossible for the story to be anything but 5-10% accurate.

Combine innaccuracy with Bush-hate and Liberal agenda and you have a perfect formula for brainwashing and indoctrination.

Unfortunately, too many Americans believe the news is accurate… that’s why the 5th column can get away with it’s partisan traitorous propaganda.

Blogs, Vlogs, and news talk radio are our best hope to get news that is indeed FAIR and BALANCED.

THANK YOU BLOGGERS, VLOGGERS, AND TALK RADIO!!! You do so much to make America better!!!

Richard Davis on June 20, 2006 at 8:52 AM

Fox painted themselves into a corner with the “fair and balanced” slogan. It leaves them open to criticism from the left if they are not “fair and balanced” enough. They have to placate the libs from time to time.

And Murdoch is not exactly a conservative.

We just have to live with what we have.

dman on June 20, 2006 at 10:58 AM

CatholicConservative: you’re absolutely right. The arrogant Murtha forgets the first law of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging.

dman on June 20, 2006 at 11:02 AM

Rowane, you are right. Shepherd Smith is what we would call “reporting by emotion”.

It really does not matter which side he leans, that is bad journalism and it won’t get him far. He should learn from Brit Hume.

I do not want news reporter to comment on the news or use emotion as a mean to convey his feeling. I want to hear the facts and his job is to bring me the facts with utmost fidelity. Anything less is betrayal of their professional commitment.

Apparently they rather want to be like Dan Rather.

easy87us on June 20, 2006 at 12:35 PM

I just want this ‘last throes’ to be the last time i hear this comment. the next comment I want is that its done

Defector01 on June 20, 2006 at 1:00 PM

I have been a devoted Fox fan. Hadn’t watched CNN since 1998 or so. But recently, I’m watching Lou Dobbs’ show. (I watch the Brit Hume re-run at midnight EDT.) Fox is drifting a bit – and so am I.

dman on June 20, 2006 at 1:15 PM

As deranged as these Muslim extremists are, there is no telling how many new ones will bubble their way to the top of the slop jar and murder on. The turning point will be a Middle East intellectual awakening, which I see little evidence of in any news media. Old ways die hard.

Shmo on June 20, 2006 at 3:10 PM

Dman, even MSNBC has some good stuff once in a while. I never though I would say it , but FOX pisses me off sometimes.

Fair and balanced my A$$. I don’t want to see Juan Williams’ face. I never watch those clowns sunday morning. I dislike Alan Colm ( what a dope head) and Wesly Clark. Come to think about it…FOX has more kooks and airhead liberals than MSNBC! I don’t mind watching a liberal once in a while but these guys are irrational unreasonable creeps and they are not even funny, and FOX has saturated their screen with liberals!

When Tim Russert can pull out Murtha’s past speeches( 2004 on staying in Iraq to get the job done) to question Murtha on his latest changes in position, Tim is doing a much better job than soft leg OReilly.

easy87us on June 20, 2006 at 7:49 PM

Shmo: bingo. The natural impulse is to look for a military solution, the satisfaction that comes with doing something, blowin up some of theirs when they blow up some of ours. This is all well and good but it doesn’t get to the root problem. The relevant model here is the Cold War, the triumph of democracy over communism–basically a good idea over a bad idea winning out based on a combination of military deterrence, trade, education and smart diplomacy. Given the amorphous nature of the Islamist terrorists, this is even more appropriate today. (I get a kick out the neocons who don’t want to negotiate with Iran or North Korea. Hell we negotiated with the USSR, typically it’s your enemies you negotiate with, duh.)

honora on June 21, 2006 at 11:09 AM

The Soviet Union was a rational actor, honora. These people aren’t. Deterrence doesn’t work on suicidal fanatics.

Allahpundit on June 21, 2006 at 11:11 AM

AP: if by “these people” you mean the terrorists, I agree. But I think the battle here is to be won (or lost) with the majority of Muslims who are not radical and most likely apolitical, and also with the regimes that finance the terror–most particularly the Saudis.

PS, we now look at the Soviet Union as a “rational acotor”; I would argue that a lot of folks didn’t at the time. Good point though.

honora on June 21, 2006 at 11:45 AM

honora — I quite agree re: hearts and minds. But don’t you think Iraq is a brilliant stroke in that regard? We’ve managed to align the interests of 25 million Muslims with our own and against Al Qaeda, which is killing them by the thousands.

Allahpundit on June 21, 2006 at 12:00 PM

easy87 makes an important point. At White House press conferences the media define the situation with their questions. You remember the questions as much as the answers.

Remember Bush landing on the aircraft carrier as co-pilot? The media are still screaming about what they imply is Bush’s ‘mission accomplished’ scam. That might have been the moment Bush lost the word battle.

It doesn’t help that places like FOX are defined by their competitors as right-wing, or conservative supporters of Bush, yet FOX has been doing a slow and IMHO intentional turn to the left.

FOX is now massaging its conservative viewers to think that the new left wing slant is really right wing. The turn came when they changed the guy at the top of FOX news. I can’t decide if it is simply a recent change of heart by Murdoch to support his new Hillary love-fest. I read Murdoch jumped to the Blair band wagon when he thought Blair was the winner. Or my suspicious mind says, the best way to get people to drop long held convictions is to first pretend to agree with them in depth, and then slowly feed them the new program.

I gave up watching FOX because I couldnt stand the new tide of left wing commentators being thrown in your face after each news short, for instance Wesley Clark. Short news item on a battle, and Clark is in your face explaining why things went wrong. FOX was slowly loading the daytime news with such 30 second analyses, and starting to soften up the evening when I bailed.

I avoid cable news now, except for Lou Dobbs, and maybe hurricanes. The net is a better source of news.

I found Malkin, North, Hannity and Coulter by watching FOX and I thank FOX for letting them speak.

entagor on June 21, 2006 at 12:01 PM

AP: from your mouth to God’s ear.

Sadly, I don’t agree: I think we tend to see Iraq from our perspective–they agree with us, don’t agree with us, line up against AQ, don’t line up against AQ–whereas their perspective is quite different: Sunni/Shiite/Kurd fissures critical, meaning a civil war is either happening or going to happen, which gives Iran a huge leg up as they align with the Iraqi Shiite; and, when the hell is the electricity going to come back on!! The latter may sound trivial, but it’s the stuff of day to day living.

We shall see.

honora on June 21, 2006 at 12:19 PM

We all know the big money goes both direction so they can conduct “business” as usual if either side win.

Their business ain’t buying and selling for sure.

Lately they are under threat because the conservatives are taking back the GOP. They don’t like that.

FOX’s changes are intentional and obvious. As Entagor put it..they want to brain wash us into believe left is middle.

RINOs and the moderates are both beneficiaries of their money. The left kooks are trying to take back their party as much as we want to take back our party. That is why you are seeing CNN, MSNBC, and the three networks are going right( to educate the left), while FOX is going left( to educate the right).

They are doing it to both parties so they can maintain the control of our government.

If you pay attention you will see what I am talking about.

Bush has made very important changes to his people too, and it ain’t coincidence.

GOP is getting less money than Demos now and it ain’t coincidence neither.

easy87us on June 21, 2006 at 1:57 PM