Leave it to the right-wing National Review Online to completely flub the title. I guess you have to be a 31 percenter to see this exchange their way.
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If anybody in the White House press room these days deserves a raise it’s Helen Thomas, who continues to be the only journalist in the room to consistently uphold the duties of the Fourth Estate. Thank you Helen for keeping it real ever since landing a job at UPI all the way back in 1943.
Transcript and commentary after the jump.
Helen Thomas: No troops out from Iraq on his watch. I know. I’m talking about all troops.
Dana Perino: Well, 5700 troops will be home by the end of the year so that is some troops coming home. The President said the troop levels are going to be made by the commanders on the ground and we are going to have to talk about return on success. [return? You mean like the return of the $3.5 trillion this war is going to cost since your (mis)administration promised that Iraq was “a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”]
Helen Thomas: Why should it be? Why don’t the American people have a say?
Dana Perino: The American people have had a say. They elected a President [no, they didn’t] who is their commander in chief [no, he is not] and is making decisions based on what his commanders on the ground are telling him.
Helen Thomas: Do You think that was the vote from the American people?
Dana Perino: They elected a commander in chief [not!] and the President is bringing home 5700 troops based on the recommendations of his commanders on the ground and based on return on success. Hopefully in the future we can bring home more but it’s going to depend on what Gen Petraeus reports and remember he will come back in March.
Helen Thomas: Why should we depend on him?
Dana Perino: Because he is the commander on the ground, Helen. He’s the one who is making sure that the situation is moving —
Helen Thomas: You mean how many more people we kill?
Dana Perino: Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position bestowed upon you by your colleagues to make such statements. This is. It is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.
Helen Thomas: Do you know how many we have since the start of this war?
Dana Perino: How many… We are going after the enemy, Helen. To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it.
Helen Thomas: Oh, regret. It doesn’t bring back a life.
So true, Helen. So true. [transcript and commentary are mine]
No Trackbacks To “Give Helen Thomas a Raise!“
HELEN ROCKS!!!
Give her HELL helen….
check out perinos “eat shit & die look” at the end of the clip…
H I L A R I O U S !
God bless you, Helen. From a fellow Kentuckian…
Helen Thomas continues to ask real questions, and that drives the neocons crazier.
The few real journalists left in this country, like Helen, are something to cherish.
I have a feeling that Helen would agree when I say what we need is……
Dennis Kucinich 08 - Leadership with integrity.
if only the so called journalist in the room had her courage and independence. think where this country would be today. the rest of the bunch just lay down and play dead while being spoon fed propoganda. this is a great lady and this country owes a her a debt. please keep asking the tough questions. this country needs you.
I thought Dana was condescending to Helen and to make the personal attack was very inappropriate.
Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position bestowed upon you by your colleagues to make such statements. This is. It is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.
I hate the turn that our country has taken and the way the right always turns things personal to get away from the real issues. Dana finds statement of the truth offensive. Fuck her.
Given ‘em Hell, Helen!
Dana Perino, you are the biggest bitch I’ve heard in a long, long time. I’d like to see your sorry ass in Iraq, but being the diva you are and the chicken-hawk you are, that would never happen. You and the rest of the cowards occupying our White House have dirtied it forever.
What goes around, comes around, and this scum of a woman has a lot of bad karma coming her way.
thes repo ciminally cowardly chickenhawk whores do’nt like it when you rub their noses in the pile of SHIT they CAUSED
I dunno. I saw it as tough questions from Thomas handled well by Perino. Give ‘em both raises.
bushisaliar @ 8:
WELL SAID!!
we need more reporters like this.
HEY DANA! PEOPLE ARE KILLED IN WARS! There is no Santa or Easter Bunny either.
please dont be so hard on dana! im sure shes just had a bad start to her morning routine, perhaps she had a malfuntion of her morning douchebag, that can be disheartening after a hard night in the dc brothels!
Bush’s lying mouth piece of ass, “Helen, there are we have never found or imprisoned nor killed any innocent Iraqis. Now stop doing your job, it’s embarrassing (me).
What is in the cup Dana? Remorse? Regret? The blood of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis?
Way to go Helen—but remember that you are having a discussion with a robotic retard pre programmed by the Buscovite Junta to spew their defective propaganda. Don’t ever expect these sociopathic misfits to ever admit any wrongdoing or responsibility.
I hate this woman. Absolutely cannot stand her. I think I can watch Bush easier than I can this Slag. A holiday for America will be the day one of the reporters slaps this woman across the face to knock that smirk to the moon.
I wonder what kind of “tell all” book Ms. Dana will write three years from now? I venture she’ll say how she didn’t know she was lying to the American people. The only thing truthful we will know, is that she was not pounding bon bons with Jeff Gannon-Guckert, like our new buddy Scotty McClellan did.
To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson, in “Pulp Fiction”:
“Say my name in that condescending tone, again! I dare you! I double-dare you, motherfucker! Say my name in that condescending tone, one more goddamn time!!”
mo_dems @ 11:
Unfortunately, Helen is the last of her kind. The press corps are a bunch of Repug zombie stenographers.
“Oh yeah? W…We…Well, I… I guess you have to be a 68%-er to see it THIS way, suck on that!”
Helen does a great job of exposing Perino for the uber-patriotic robot that she is.
Imagine expressing “regret” for the deaths of a million innocent people.
I love the poisoned look she gave her right at the end.
Ali @ 6:
Yeah she started lecturing Helen-what a pathetic joke.
In other words, ‘The American people had their say in the elections, which we stole fair and square. You already had your chance to be ignored. Now shut-up.’
Is there something wrong with the comments ?
wont post my comments.
Stop attempting to talk down to Helen Thomas, DanaBarbie. Not gonna cut it, not on this video or anywhere.
D.P. can only dream of having the brains H.T. has, if Perino cared to have a brain.
Dana Perino- even more vacuous than Tony Snow behind the briefing room podium (who woulda thunk it possible)…
Dana says “Everybody has the opportunity for liberty freedom and democracy”. Hmmmm WHAT ABOUT LIFE?
Keep up the good work Helen.
Dana Perino: How many… We are going after the enemy, Helen. To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it
Regret? A MILLION civilians have been killed! “I’m sorry” doesn’t excuse that. A million innocent cicilians vs how many insurgents? Seriously. Have we “killed” a million enemies too?
WTG Helen! Give her hell!!!!
Right on, Helen.
This is what the “press” should be doing to this little twerp every day.
kulshan @ 24:
I don’t know… Try again.
Looks like it worked!
Bill Norton @ 9:
Actually, I thought that Dana Perino handled Ms. Thomas’ s questions very poorly. Perino never answered Helen Thomas when Ms. Thomas asked her how many Iraqis had been killed since the United States illegally invaded their country. Perhaps that was because Dana Perino would not acknowledge that over a million Iraqis have died since the invasion due to death, illness, starvation, unnecessary shootings, etc. It is understandable that Perino would find Ms. Thomas’s question offensive because to address it would mean that the United States would have to confront the fact that it is complicit in war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. All of these transgressions would naturally be answerable at the International Criminal Court, which the U.S. has conveniently elected not to join. It is just astonishing that a woman of Helen Thomas’s age [87?] is as sharp as she is while Dana Perino apparently feels no shame in aiding and abetting the lies that spew from this criminal administration.
The right to liberty, freedom and get blown to smithereens from 4000 feet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNWOj_dFSR4
And there she proved why Helen is 10 times the woman Dana will ever be.
The greatest success of the Bush regime’s
surgeescalation has been to get the press to stop reporting on US casualties. To my knowledge, at least 38 have died in combat (not counting those who later died from injuries received in combat) in the last month, but you wouldn’t know about it from the press coverage. The bar has been set that combat fatalities are not news unless at least 5-10 die in a single incident.Little blonde missy here forgets that the Dems were given a majority in BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS because they had promised to start bringing toops home from Iraq. The only people with confidence in King George are the 25-30 percenters.
Janet @ 27:
Janet-
Very well said. Questions that Ms. Thomas raises must be continually asked in order that the people in this country are aware of how many Iraqis have needlessly lost their lives because of American imperialism.
To me Dana looked like she was going to tear up when Helen asked how many innocents we were going to kill. But then she told Helen it was a privilege to be in the breifing room. Bet that privilege will be taken away pretty damn soon, or that Helen will be ignored again.
It is my hope that all the reporters start pepper Dana with real questions, hopefully personalizing the victims. Maybe that will dent Dana’s armor and we will be able to “break” her. I think Dana is treating this as a political experiment, she doesn’t see the human cost and has depersonalized the war. If we can show her teh people dying. The families, American and Iraqi being destroyed by this experiment of theirs she will crack.
Obviously this cracking/breaking will have to be done at the War Crime Trials that will be held in ‘09 (reason why Impeachment is off the table?) I think Dana wants to be honest and treats this job as a game. Can’t believe that they are all heartless bastards!
to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my head is going to fucking explode
Yes, Helen brought a blush of anger to the Stepford spokeswoman. Didn’t think that could be done.
Hell yeah, Ms. Thomas!
While i don’t believe that people should be rewarded for simply doing their jobs, maybe its time that we all find a way to recognize Ms. Thomas. She may only be doing her job, but she’s one of the few who does. That woman needs a fan club. Enough vocal support for her might, big maybe, be enough for other reporters to see that we want them all to be more like Helen.
Be like Helen, just do it…
And don’t worry folks, poor Dana will age horribly from even a short stint at this gig. Since her looks seem to be all that she really has, the price will of this will be high…especially if reporters start asking her actual questions.
god bless you Helen!
But y’know what is so interesting to me is this circular “commander in chief” and “commander on the ground thing.”
I’m waiting for someone to ask “So, Mr. President, which is it? Are *you* the commander in chief, or is the general? Does a general follow orders from a colonel? *You* make the decision, and your commanders on the ground carry it out. “
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my head is going to fucking explode
Telling Helen Thomas being in the briefing room is a privelege is what is wrong with American journalism today. People have a right to know what their elected officials (yes, even the elected wannabe-king Boy George) are doing. Reporters should not be grateful about being allowed to do their job.
“and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive.” - Dana Perino
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq.....49,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01442.html
Voice of America - 12 Iraqi Villagers Killed in Militant Raid - 7 hours ago
“At least 537 Iraqi civilians were killed last month.”
Yep. Totally absurd, Dana. Don’t let any reality get in the way of the story.
I didn’t think I’d be able to equate another human with the perfidious George W. Bush, but Perino is as big an ass as he is.
Watching that fucked-up teenybopper condescending to Helen made my eyes bleed…. If there were anyone even kind of decent in the White House, Perino would have been bounced out on her ass for that.
Kudos to Helen. She’s kicked Ari, Scotty, Tony, and Dana’s asses
Helen does a great job of exposing Perino for the uber-patriotic robot that she is.
I guess I’m having trouble figuring out what an “uber-patriot” is. Perhaps it’s someone who spounts jingoistic nonsense is response to legitimate questions.
Sorry Dana but it is not a war zone…!
Our military is engaged in an occupation. An occupation that places them in crossfire of the Iraqi civil war.
For our troops on the ground there. Who are they supporting and defending-Sunni or Shia?
Dana, if (a big if) you were a patrolling grunt on the streets of Iraq and gunfire broke out from two sides of the street with (presumably) Sunni on one side and Shia on the other. You as a soldier cannot distinguish who is who.
So, who do you fire at ????? Which side are you on ?
I would call Dana a “monkey brain” but it is beneath me.
And for Dana to lecture Helen on misuse of her front seat. I didn’t hear any of Helen’s colleagues complaining, Dana. So if Dana can’t handle the press get someone else that can without personal attacks to cover not answering.
Perino: […]It is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room,[…]
Actually, that’s their job, just like it is yours. You get your chance to justify the government’s actions to the public; they get to ask for details. Count your blessings that only a couple of them are any good at it.
Or are you going to try kicking her out of the front row again?
My guess Helen would have been a journalist since befor Dana’s mommie was born.
It should be a ‘privilege’ to represent the government as a government spokesperson, instead, Dana is a liar.