1) I agree with the first two sentences of that bit, but the question in the last sentence... why the fuck should he? Superstition? Symbolism? Nothing tangible will be changed besides the physical location of his sunglasses.

2) I have nothing against Odierno. I've always thought he was a pretty decent guy. Good for him.

3) Because it's his job to cover the Pentagon. It's how he gets paid; it's what he is told to report on. You're in education, right? What if you became a physics teacher, and saw something negative coming out of the math department... would you go rage over to another teacher's classroom and start your own lesson?

As for why NPR doesn't send someone... they've got this guy: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2781501
Looking at some other reports, this dude seems to have a complete hard-on for Obama ... which is unfortunate.

They've also got this guy:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2788801
...Who I couldn't find as much information on but certainly seems more legitimate.

4) What, specifically, are you referring to? In what reports have they refused to answer questions regarding the number of troops remaining in the country and/or remaining inside the cities? A citation would be nice here.

[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 2:12 AM. Reason : and]

7/1/2009 1:58:51 AM

^ I brought my post over to this page so people would know what the hell we're talking about.

Quote :

"Nobody gives a fuck what Fail Goat says anyway. OH NOES! You called me a farm animal, now I have to cyberstalk you and post personal information about you because I'm constantly butthurt and sandy vagged--WAAAAAAAAAA!!!1 STFU, you creepy bald-headed loser. 1. I happen to think that General Odierno is an American hero and deserves respect--if you don't, then so be it. Regardless of Mr. NPR's political leanings, he could have asked the exact same questions with a lot less of the popped-collar douchbaggery. I mean, can you take the fucking sunglasses off your head when you're speaking to the commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq? 2. General Odierno--in a classy move--apologized for losing his cool at Mr. NPR: US Iraq commander loses cool over troop numbers "'Sorry I lost my temper a little bit on the number,' he said, to some laughter from reporters." http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN30262848 3. If Mr. NPR is so goddamned concerned about the numbers in Iraq, why don't he and his colleagues go grill Chairman Obama? I mean, Obama's the commander in chief and Odierno answers to him, right? 4. So, now--as a truly concerned citizen--I have my own question: WHY IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HIDING THE NUMBERS OF AMERICAN FORCES REMAINING IN IRAQ?"

7/1/2009 2:14:19 AM

^^ 1. Why do you wear a tie to certain occasions and not a hat at certain occasions and so on? Respect, decorum, tradition? I simply think the sunglasses/glasses thing is disrespectful--but let's not get into the weeds here. This obviously wasn't my main objection.

2. Okay--cool.

3. My point is self-evident: Odierno works for Obama. If the military is withholding information, it should be taken up the chain of command--up to and including Obama. This sound reasoning, which cannot be legitimately disputed, led to my next point.

4. If Odierno--who works for Obama--is actually withholding the troop numbers in question (and I don't think he is), then the Obama administration is withholding troop numbers and this should be immediately addressed.

[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 2:30 AM. Reason : With me now?]

7/1/2009 2:24:11 AM

3) Yeah, I saw what you meant there. I'm just saying, they've got other guys to follow the Commander in Chief... at least one of whom would appear to be a complete sheep.

4) It seems far more likely that Odierno simply didn't look up the specific number or commit it to memory in any way before the press conference... and/or he just took personal issue with giving an inexact numerical answer, therefore he refused to.

I would think that if the Obama administration had those numbers (which they likely do in a file somewhere), they would be getting them from the ground up (i.e. it would be coming through some chain of command which Odierno himself is a part of). Obama isn't playing a computer strategy game looking down from on high at his soldiers; he'd be getting a number from someone who got that number from someone else, and so on, until you get to the ground-level people whose job it is to add sets of numbers together and then give them to someone higher. If the president (sitting in DC) is having to tell the commander of our forces in Iraq how many people he's commanding, it would be a pretty sad and ass-backwards state of affairs. Again, it's far more likely that Odierno simply hadn't committed the information to memory before the press conference (or has a personal issue with giving numerical estimations).


Also, are you aware that taking an "I don't know" answer from a general to imply a "we are withholding this information" answer from the presidential administration is approximately as douchebag-esque as the reporters you've been criticizing?

7/1/2009 2:37:59 AM

^ Wrong, wrong, wrong. You totally missed the point--just forget it.

7/1/2009 2:58:59 AM

7/1/2009 3:05:10 AM

Quote :

"My point is self-evident: Odierno works for Obama. If the military is withholding information, it should be taken up the chain of command--up to and including Obama. This sound reasoning, which cannot be legitimately disputed, led to my next point."

How the hell do you know they aren't doing that as we speak? His job was to ask Odierno questions during a presser. When he didn't get the answer he wanted what the fuck did you expect him to do? Throw a hooksaw temper tantrum and cry for Obama to come to the presser to clarify things? This

Quote :

"it should be taken up the chain of command--up to and including Obama."

in the context of the press briefing and without any other information outside of it is without a doubt one of the stupidest fucking things you've ever posted, and you post stupid shit on an hourly basis, so you really outdid yourself there Jeff.

Quote :

"If Odierno--who works for Obama--is actually withholding the troop numbers in question (and I don't think he is), then the Obama administration is withholding troop numbers and this should be immediately addressed."

Immediately addressed? What in the fuck are you talking about? You started this chain by crying that the guy was a douchebag and the other reporters were douchebags for hounding him. HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET THIS INFORMATION WITHOUT CONTINUING TO HOUND HIM DURING THE PRESSER YOU STUPID FUCK?

See what I mean tromboner? Hookslaw has been face owned by multiple people about this point already and this is what he offered for discussion about this presser

Quote :

"WHY IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HIDING THE NUMBERS OF AMERICAN FORCES REMAINING IN IRAQ?"

It's simply a waste of time to deal with him in any orderly or respectable way.

Quote :

"you creepy bald-headed loser"

You're a 42 yr old Liberal Studies grad student hanging out on a college message board getting owned so fucking hard by KIDS half your age that people have actually begun to feel sorry for you. You make appearances in Chit Chat to comment on pictures of girls in volleyball shorts. You creeped another user out in public by acting like a total Asperger. You're single. Most likely ugly. And just generally a failure overall.

I win.



[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 9:49 AM. Reason : .]

7/1/2009 9:45:51 AM

Quote :

"You creeped another user out in public by acting like a total Asperger. "

wait... what happened?

7/1/2009 10:53:43 AM

He recognized Ambrosia in public and weirded her out. Nothing scandalous. Just more evidence of his socially awkward self.

7/1/2009 11:12:33 AM

^^^, ^^, and ^ Nothing but stupid TWW fiction:

Quote :

"I got TWW called out today at lunch with miska today. my STS 322 TA is hooksaw, and was kind enough to introduce me to my professor "

ambrosia1231

Quote :

"^ I can confirm that ambrosia1231 and miska were having lunch at Porter's Tavern today. A good time was had by all. Once again, 'Wolf Web much?' Ha! Nice to meet you. "

hooksaw

message_topic.aspx?topic=243187&page=162

ALL of your "facts" are wrong. Try not to be so creepy and stalkerish and stick to the topic, you protoplasm bag of fiction.

You lose--again--at life.

7/1/2009 12:46:18 PM

She said in a thread in the past month that she thought you were creepy as hell. She obviously isn't going to call you a creepy fuck while you are her TA. Are you that retarded?

Quote :

"Try not to be so creepy and stalkerish and stick to the topic"

Umm...you first?

You're right, I wasn't being fully truthful in the above post. She doesn't just think you're creepy, but you're annoying too. You made a helluva impression you outdated cell biology term.

Quote :

"It's all irrelevant now, thank god, but he had students on here, some of whom he personally attacked, and he did know it. I'm glad to see him gone, and don't particularly care how it came to be."

Quote :

"hey look the dude who isn't an asshole IRL...he's creepy, instead."

[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 1:15 PM. Reason : .]

7/1/2009 1:02:33 PM

7/1/2009 1:58:37 PM

^ You and Fail Goat are. . .



[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 2:05 PM. Reason : That's doo-doo, baby.]

7/1/2009 2:04:59 PM

I don't think changing Fail Goat to Fail Boat is really a step down...

7/1/2009 2:07:57 PM

^ Well, with the name at issue, in addition to being an utter failure he smells like a goat.

7/1/2009 2:09:44 PM

I've been on some smelly boats though...

7/1/2009 2:27:40 PM

OMFG--LOL!

CBS, Helen Thomas Challenge Gibbs On "Controlled" Town Hall Meeting

http://tinyurl.com/mehdcx

Hilarious!

[Edited on July 1, 2009 at 2:41 PM. Reason : Robert Gibbs is a fucking weasel. ]

7/1/2009 2:38:22 PM

It's really an epic fail to change an already denigrating name to anything else.

It's like, if someone had the user name CumGuzzlingWhore and you tried to change it to anything else it wouldn't have any effect.

But, it is hookslaw, so why should we be surprised?

7/1/2009 2:39:34 PM

^ i hear hooks likes it when you call him kooksaw

7/1/2009 5:58:39 PM

^^^ I enjoyed that

Gibbs is such a prick

7/2/2009 9:58:10 AM

^ Yeah, he is. Even some liberals here don't really like him.



I wonder where the outrage is, though, that the Obama administration--according to leftist Helen Thomas and others--is not being transparent and that the Obama administration continues to. . .

Quote :

"CHECK WIT HUFFPO"

7/2/2009 12:12:34 PM

I WAS SO OUTRAGED I POSTED ON MY FACEBK WALL YESTERDAY TO MUCH FANFARE AND LOLLITY

AND I WAS ALSO MAD BECAUSE I'M ABLE TO BOTH BITCH ABOUT THE LIBERAL MEDIA'S BIAS BUT AT THE SAME TIME HOLD THEM UP AS RIGHTEOUS IN CALLING OBAMA OUT

I HAD MY CAKE AND ATE THE FUCK OUT OF IT

ALSO

ROBERT GIBBS

GO STATE WOLFPACK

7/2/2009 12:22:55 PM

^ How derivative. Here's the original!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6QQGMcGfIQ

7/2/2009 12:27:28 PM

hooksaw, how are you talking about the horrible liberal media and then posting about the same media calling out gibbs in the same thread

do you not see your own hypocrisy here?

7/2/2009 12:31:53 PM

^ Not at all. Even the liberal media gets tired of having its chain pulled by the Obama administration.

7/2/2009 12:34:20 PM

its not a liberal media problem, its media problem

it was the same under the bush administration

it will be the same under the next administration

you can't claim that the media is some horrible liberal oligarchy and then just a few posts later talk about them calling out a liberal administration

these are the days of 24 hour in your face EXTREME!!!! news that survive on sensationalism and fear

thats not going to change

its not some liberal media, its stupid viewers and the media that feeds off that

7/2/2009 12:47:06 PM

^ I don't disagree with some of that. But I've posted more than enough legitimate and strong evidence here to support the fact that the mainstream media is liberal--just read the thread.

The fact that some reporters got sick of the Obama administration's bullshit--and more specifically, Gibbs'--and called them out on it helps prove my point. It happens so infrequently that it's a big news story in itself.

Honeymoon aside, do you honestly think that Bush was treated with the same kid gloves that Obama has been? Seriously?!

7/2/2009 1:07:25 PM

were you in the country during the lead-up to the iraq war?

7/2/2009 1:08:53 PM

Quote :

"It happens so infrequently that it's a big news story in itself. "

But it doesn't happen infrequently at all.

7/2/2009 1:17:44 PM

Bush had a honeymoon period too, hell because of 9/11 his lasted a really long time

and Obama gets criticized daily, what kid gloves are you talking about? Even the Daily Show makes fun of him almost nightly.

[Edited on July 2, 2009 at 1:29 PM. Reason : .]

7/2/2009 1:28:25 PM

I wasn't aware that we had 9/11 Part II a few months ago, resulting in the media going easy on Obama.

you fucking idiots.

7/2/2009 1:56:34 PM

YOU FUCKING IDIOTS

7/2/2009 2:11:57 PM

Yeah, I cant imagine any president being given a honeymoon period.

I DEE TEN TEE error!

7/2/2009 2:23:31 PM

figured somebody would be all over this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201563_pf.html

Quote :

"Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000. "Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. "This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.""

7/2/2009 3:32:53 PM

Investigative journalism at its finest at around the 3:30 mark. (What comes before it is pretty good too.)

8/11/2009 9:14:12 AM

^ Sweet Jesus, I can't stand the lot of them! Chris Matthews is a yammering far-left ninny, Ron Brownstein is a big city liberal, and Cynthia Tucker is a leftist racial agitator posing as a journalist.

[Edited on August 11, 2009 at 5:23 PM. Reason : Didn't Tucker recently get demoted or something of the sort?]

8/11/2009 5:22:43 PM

^ I don't know about Ron Brownstein outside of this clip, but he seemed fairly level headed in that discussion, especially compared to the other two

8/11/2009 8:12:29 PM

^ Well, of the three, you're correct. But make no mistake, Brownstein's definitely a big city liberal.

8/11/2009 8:39:56 PM

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/53167152.html

TYPICAL

8/13/2009 9:42:24 PM

HOW DARE YOU THWART MY ROLLEYE SMILEY ADBLOCK

YOU MONSTER

8/14/2009 2:38:51 AM

^^ The reporter must've taken a hard left. HIYO!

8/14/2009 4:54:45 AM

From the always great Best of the Web column on WSJ.com...

Here's a blast from the past. The New York Times, July 9, 2001, reports on George W. Bush's first summer vacation as president:

Quote :

"On Friday, as new unemployment figures painted a newly troubling portrait of the American economy, Mr. Bush placed himself in the same scenes--golfing and fishing in a New England paradise--that once caused his father electoral grief. Simply amazing."

Here's the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, dated July 6, that "painted a newly troubling portrait of the American economy":

Quote :

"The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.5 percent, five-tenths of a percentage point higher than the average for 2000."

As Barack Obama embarked on his first summer vacation as president last week--also in a "New England paradise," Martha's Vineyard--the most recent unemployment rate was 9.4%, more than double the summer 2001 figure. Covering the Obama jaunt, the Times offers no hint that there's anything wrong with a president taking a vacation during a time of genuine crisis. Indeed, it offers this justification:

Quote :

"Mr. Obama, whom aides described as being amused by all of the gloom-and-doom prognosticating over his health care agenda, did not even consider skipping his vacation. Last year, he talked about the importance of taking a break to avoid "making mistakes.""

That makes sense--and in any case, it's not as if the president actually escapes his responsibilities when he goes on "vacation." But the Times's coverage of Obama is a useful contrast to the paper's petty partisan sniping against Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/09/us/white-house-memo-amazing-amazement-in-bush-at-play.html

8/24/2009 4:55:37 PM

Dude... that's because Bush was on vacation like 80% of the time before 9/11. This is Obama's first vacation since being in office.

8/24/2009 6:10:53 PM

Quote :

"Dude... that's because Bush was on vacation like 80% of the time before 9/11. This is Obama's first vacation since being in office"

Do you actually believe this? If so, please get your head out of your ass.

8/24/2009 7:31:11 PM

Quote :

"Yes, that's 487 days [at Camp David]. And Camp David is not even where the president has spent the most time when not at the White House: Knoller reports that Mr. Bush has made 77 visits to his ranch in Crawford during his presidency, and spent all or part of 490 days there. "

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4728085.shtml

8/24/2009 7:50:21 PM

Quote :

"80%"

8/24/2009 9:33:45 PM

^^^ Yeah, fuck off douche bag.

^ Obviously that is an exaggeration, but the point remains that this is Obama's first vacation as opposed to spending about 1/5 of his time on vacation.

[Edited on August 24, 2009 at 9:35 PM. Reason : ]

8/24/2009 9:33:54 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHTiXvELNg

8/25/2009 12:34:18 AM

(490 + 487) / (365 * 8) = 33%.

so... just the vacation days spent at camp david and crawford, tx... GWB was on vacation 33% of his 8 years in the White House

not bad work if you can get it.

8/25/2009 1:20:42 AM

President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas.



[Edited on August 25, 2009 at 1:49 AM. Reason : FYI: Bush wasn't on "vacation" much of the time he was at Crawford.]

8/25/2009 1:47:39 AM