Petraeus Propaganda?

It's been a few months since good ol' boy GW essentially put the fate of the USA's heightened involvement a.k.a the surge in General Petraeus' upcoming report to congress.

Well, it's "P" day and Petraeus is getting grilled and lambasted by the dem's and being kissed up to by the G.O.P.

This is my favorite quote SO FAR!

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said:

"I am distressed by the accusations leveled by some in the media and by some members of Congress during hearings like these calling into question the integrity of our military, accusing the military of cherry-picking positive numbers to reflect a dramatic decline in sectarian violence... Some in Congress accuse you, General Petraeus, of presenting a report that is simply White House propaganda."

Perish the thought!

I'm always surprised at the right's attempt to equate anything "anti-surge" and anti-Iraq war as anti-military. I never believed the scare tactics accusations the left gave but, the more quotes I hear like this that put down any challenge to the validity of the military involvement in Iraq, the more they look like scare tactics to me.

I'm not sold on all the accusations that Bush is in Iraq to profit and its all about oil etc etc. BUT, I don't believe that he would have put as much faith in the Petraeus report if he didn't already know it supported his position. Why would he set himself up for failure by emphasizing the importance of this report months before it occurred?

But back to Ros-Lehtinen's quote. My question to her is "Are you serious?" I think that if the report comes back with anything short of; its not working, you have EXACTLY White House propaganda. Maybe propaganda is the wrong word, maybe not. Thats for you to decide.

Petraeus said that military objectives are in large measure being met. What the hell does that mean? Even if Petraeus were to say that Iraq is a failure, would we really pull out? Would we cut the surge and leave a smaller contingent? I'm guessing no, and if I'm right then it doesn't even matter what he says.

I guess thats the only other explanation for why Bush pointed to this report. He either hedged his bet and knew what was to be said, or he's been bluffing and hoping for the best.

Either way Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's quote continues to make me laugh. And the pictures GW must have of Petraeus must be worse than anything anyone has on Larry Craig.

Craigergate

Poor Larry Craig.

The Senator from Idaho will announce his resignation on Saturday amid the "sex scandle" he tried to hide by pleading guilty rather than make a big story out of it.

Regardless of whether or not he is or is not gay is to me irrelavent. Before this stody broke a few days ago I had never heard of the way gay guys pick each other up in the bathroom. Frankly it scared me a little bit because I can imagine tapping my foot to the song in my head or to make it clear to someone that the stall was occupied. Apparently with Craig it involved slipping his foot into the adjacent stall and putting his hand palm up under the stall divider. That being sad if he didn't realize what he was doing its scary to think how quickly thigns unfolded for him then and are unraveling for him now.

What really concerns me is how this "sting" operation was carried out. It sure seems like entrapement to me. Setting people up out of nowhere is one thing but from what I have heard Craig was arrested without ever commiting a crime. It could have become a crime but what was going on between what could have been to concenting adults was not illegal.

Throw in his family values and the Democrats have a field day with it, which is unfortunate because nobody really wins in this case.

Now THAT being said, if Craig isn't gay and didn't do anythign wrong why would he plead guilty? I'd love to believe him but If you are accused of something like that especially if you are in a political position like him why plead out if you are innocent. The press will find out sooner or later. When you hear that a Senator made a plea deal without a lawyer, something just doesn't add up.

Another intersting thing to watch is how quickly the republican party is running from anything gay. This guy went from being a good ol boy to everybody's worst enemy in "one number two".

Keep your briefcase to yourself and your feet in your own stall.