I always thought that it was the press corps job to send the press secretary from the room in a scurry from the hard-hitting questions. Helen appears to be the only one asking them now.

Bless you, Helen!

Helen, You are one AWESOME woman! LOVE YA!

AWESOME.

Speaking of torture, it’s a good thing that the American public wised up to Bush and Cheney, or Helen would not only be in Bush’s dog house, she’d be in Dick Cheney’s dungeon!

What a simple and brilliant way to show appreciation for this incredible woman.

This is a great two ideas.Flowers and a letter to my editor.Helen is the toughest of the White House press corps.
I love to watch Dana “Dainty” Perino squirm when Helen won`t let her off the hook.
Thanks , Helen for confronting the devils.

How about a Helen Thomas DAY? She has long been one of the unsung heroes(Heroines) of this country’s collective voice ,speaking back to power. That she is still a vigilant( although less vocal) voice FOR the people, is a testament to the audacity and tenacity of her integrity. It has been disgraceful how this American treasure has been given short shrift by this P.O.S administration and the MSM media who probably can’t SPELL integrity,much less recognize and respect it.

Flowers and a letter to the editor are a nice idea. A trophy one of these days.

All due respect to Helen Thomas of course, ( because she does at least challenge the mouthpiece during press conferences), but, lets be perfectly honest: her questions are not particularly good ones. In fact, more often than not, they are weak, usually backed up little else than distrust. Of course, she is right to mistrust this criminal adminstration, yet she still comes un prepared. She asks the kind of questions that can so easily be swatted away by even the least talented Bush minions. For example, she asks things like: ” didnt the administration really invade iraq for the oil?” She serves up these questions that can first be answered with an emphatic NO, and then gives someone like Perrino free reign to spout the administration line. I’m glad she is at least challenging the nonsense: it’s more than anyone else is doing or has done. But she still does not do a good job; a real reporters job to ask real questions that cannot be dismisssed so easily, one way or the other.

THANK YOU!

Helen remains the bright star in the White House press corps. I was sorry to see the donations are closed, but letters to the editor are a great alternative.

This started on Reddit.com a couple of days ago.

I can’t afford flowers, But I would still like to take the time to thank Helen for her service for her country, and I’m sorry she has to work alongside so many spineless twerps.

Thanks Helen for all you do. Old-School reporters are difficult to find these days with media outlets being taken over by large corporations with vested interests in keeping politicians safe from solid reporters.

As for Steve’s criticism, I don’t find it the least bit valid. It is not Helen’s job to ask questions that cannot be dismissed so easily. It is her job - as is all other reporters - to ask pertinent questions whether they can be dismissed or not. The difficulty here is not Helen. The difficulty is she is out there alone with no support from her colleagues - which did not happen five to ten years ago, particularly during the Clinton Administration (which was as it should have been).

Without other reporters following up Helen’s inquiry, it is easy for the PressNazi to dismiss Helen’s pertinent questions. The PressNazi wouldn’t get such a free ride if all the other reporters were doing their job - i.e. asking pertinent questions.

You go Girl!

What’s her contact info?

they delivered 20 bouquets April 30th

She rules.

Mister Anderson @ 16:

What’s her contact info?

Helen Thomas

Dr. Biitter Hussein (Mission Accomplished) Matt @ 18:

Mister Anderson @ 16:

What’s her contact info?

Helen Thomas

Oops: helent AT hearstdc DOT com>

I think donating to her favorite charity or creating a journalism scholarship fund with her name on it would be a better way to spend money than flowers–and it would still mean a lot to her. What is she going to do with hundreds or thousands of flower bouquets?

Bless you Helen, you’re a real American!

Mister Anderson @ 16:

What’s her contact info?

hthomas@hearstdc.com

Helen today…
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....5/02/8671/

I wish I had known sooner I would have loved to chip in. Helen is the definition of patriot.

Steve @ 10:

All due respect to Helen Thomas of course, ( because she does at least challenge the mouthpiece during press conferences), but, lets be perfectly honest: her questions are not particularly good ones. In fact, more often than not, they are weak, usually backed up little else than distrust. Of course, she is right to mistrust this criminal adminstration, yet she still comes un prepared. She asks the kind of questions that can so easily be swatted away by even the least talented Bush minions. For example, she asks things like: ” didnt the administration really invade iraq for the oil?” She serves up these questions that can first be answered with an emphatic NO, and then gives someone like Perrino free reign to spout the administration line. I’m glad she is at least challenging the nonsense: it’s more than anyone else is doing or has done. But she still does not do a good job; a real reporters job to ask real questions that cannot be dismisssed so easily, one way or the other.

That seems to be a very good job of damning her with faint praise. What you are ignoring is that Ms. Thomas practically begged her colleagues to join her in asking more questions to Dana Perino concerning torture but those pusillanimous White House correspondents declined to do so. On wonders why that quasi liberal Keith Olbermann has not asked his frequent guest Dana Milbank why he did not come to the aid of Ms. Thomas. But that might mean asking the tough questions of journalists that they themselves are hesitant to ask.

If we had living national treasures like the Japanese, Helen Thomas would be one of them.

Contributors to Democratic Underground bought 100 Dozen Roses for Helen Thomas two years ago:

More pictures - Roses for Helen Thomas

Excellent BiAnnual Tradition!!!

very cool!

You are a shining star Helen Thomas!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/vi.....mId=107243

And here’s pix from this year’s event:
Flickr: Helen Thomas and The Flowers

This is a bit old news…. we declared April 25, Helen Thomas (respectable journalist) day. Last week she received over $4,000 worth of flowers.

ht is like a great point guard. she makes great passes, but her colleagues can’t make a fuckin lay-up.

Helen is a great journalist of course, however she has been thanked with flowers before. I recall about two years ago she had her office blanketed with tons of flowers for asking tough questions. Sure doesn’t mean we should do it again, however. I am pretty sure about this, but maybe my cold medication has thrown me a bit off…..

The things that are talked about in today’s news conferences are sick and disturbing. I can’t watch them. It just turns my stomach. I hate to say this; but, I miss the days of Clinton denying that he got a blow-job. I miss the days of trading arms for hostages. It seems childlike and innocent in retrospect. Todays news conferences are like this; giggle… giggle… giggle… we didn’t torture anybody; we just poured water down their lungs until they spit up blood… that’s not torture… besides, their not really people. giggle… giggle… giggle… They are “terrorists”. I feel like I am watching a Charles Manson interview. I know the people running are country are like that disturbed little boy on the playground at every school that used to rip wings off of bugs, just top watch them suffer.

About a week ago some folks at Reddit.com sent Helen Thomas $3,000 worth of flowers. Does she really need more flowers? I bet she would prefer a donation in her name to a nice worthy cause.

I got a reply from her! I sent an email last week thanking her for the incredible job she is doing and I was blessed with a reply.

Patriots ask tough questions!

Helen Thomas

c/o Hearst Newspapers

700 12th St. NW, Suite 1000

Washington, DC 20005

fuck that. period. she doesn’t deserve a cookie for doing her job. Instead rather, the fake journalists need to get their collective bells rung for not doing theirs. Take anderson cooper and his army of wannabes out to the shed and begin instating serious requirements for those pursuing the truth. The fcc should force conglomerates like fox and sinclair to name their broadcasts “entertainment”, or enact a law similar to Britain that would hold news casters to truthful statements lest they be sued for slander.

Journalists should do what journalists do - without people sending fucking candy-grams or some such because it casts the appearance of undue appreciation by the public. I appreciate the scope and depth of Helen’s work, but then again, all she’s doing is her job.

She’s not the only one to ask tough questions. Raw Story (www.rawstory.com) has a reporter in the White House corps also, and he asks very tough questions; surprisingly, he does not get called on a lot… Only the wimps get to ask questions at this charade of a press conference.

Helen is a jewel. I love it whe she takes Tokyo Perino to the carpet for her propaganda and lies.

I sent her a note last time C&L had a thread on her and she graciously replied the next day. She certainly represents what the media could be if it had any integrity.

myshadow @ 22:

Mister Anderson @ 16:

What’s her contact info?

hthomas@hearstdc.com

Helen today…
http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....5/02/8671/

I sent Helen Thomas an email thanking her for holding Perino’s hair to the fire a few weeks ago. Nothing long or fancy, just a quick, appreciative note. The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply from her thanking me for supporting her.

So for everyone who feels unappreciated when they send emails off to politicians, corporate thugs, etc and get silence as a response, send Helen an email! Even if you don’t get a response, I guarantee she’ll appreciate kind words. (Lord knows having to see Chimpy face-to-face so often MUST be a contaminating and draining existence…)

Didn’t I read a couple of weeks ago that she was involved in Bushes moronic, deranged skit of the Green, Green, Grass of Home? If so this lowers my opinion of her quite a bit.

I sent Helen Thomas an email thanking her for holding Perino’s hair to the fire a few weeks ago. Nothing long or fancy, just a quick, appreciative note. The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply from her thanking me for supporting her.

She responds personally to every E-Mail she gets. More than our Representatives do and usually about something that bears no relationship to why we contacted them in the first place.

Helen Thomas is THE true partiot. She is trying to save our country from the facism that all of the CORPORATE MEDIA TOOLS,russert, williams, blitzer, orally, shamitty, gibson etc. etc. etc. that are too gutless to loose a paycheck from the greed driven assholes that run their companies.

CRT @ 42:

Didn’t I read a couple of weeks ago that she was involved in Bushes moronic, deranged skit of the Green, Green, Grass of Home? If so this lowers my opinion of her quite a bit.

Cut her some slack.

Chimpy’s been Nero Zero fiddling at “The Green, Green Zone (of Rome)” for seven f*#^ing years now…

It’s sad that we have to bribe journalists these days to ask tough questions.

ebone @ 37:

fuck that. period. she doesn’t deserve a cookie for doing her job. Instead rather, the fake journalists need to get their collective bells rung for not doing theirs. Take anderson cooper and his army of wannabes out to the shed and begin instating serious requirements for those pursuing the truth. The fcc should force conglomerates like fox and sinclair to name their broadcasts “entertainment”, or enact a law similar to Britain that would hold news casters to truthful statements lest they be sued for slander.

Journalists should do what journalists do - without people sending fucking candy-grams or some such because it casts the appearance of undue appreciation by the public. I appreciate the scope and depth of Helen’s work, but then again, all she’s doing is her job.

What ebone emits when he ends his or her rant by saying that “… all she’s doing is her job” is the elephant in the living room and that is her age. For some reason, ebone is reluctant to acknowledge the incredible job this woman is doing a the age of not 47 but an astounding 87 years of age. How many other people does one know that are not simply active but that can still do their job with such acumen and clarity? I would venture to guess extremely few. This column that she had written a few days ago is just one example of her incisive analysis while her less than courageous colleagues who are much younger than Ms. Thomas remain silent and cowed in the press briefing room.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....mas02.html

I would like to add to what I had written at comment #47 that one could look to Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston, who had both succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease, when they were in their 80s, as evidence of how easy one’s faculties can erode because of advanced age. All the more reason to laud Ms. Thomas for the intelligence and perception that lies behind her columns and questions, which seem to be all too lacking compared to her much younger colleagues of the Fourth Estate.

She is good but Martha Raddatz of ABC also needs some encouragement.

Erroll @ 47:

ebone @ 37:

fuck that. period. she doesn’t deserve a cookie for doing her job. Instead rather, the fake journalists need to get their collective bells rung for not doing theirs. Take anderson cooper and his army of wannabes out to the shed and begin instating serious requirements for those pursuing the truth. The fcc should force conglomerates like fox and sinclair to name their broadcasts “entertainment”, or enact a law similar to Britain that would hold news casters to truthful statements lest they be sued for slander.

Journalists should do what journalists do - without people sending fucking candy-grams or some such because it casts the appearance of undue appreciation by the public. I appreciate the scope and depth of Helen’s work, but then again, all she’s doing is her job.

What ebone emits when he ends his or her rant by saying that “… all she’s doing is her job” is the elephant in the living room and that is her age. For some reason, ebone is reluctant to acknowledge the incredible job this woman is doing a the age of not 47 but an astounding 87 years of age. How many other people does one know that are not simply active but that can still do their job with such acumen and clarity? I would venture to guess extremely few. This column that she had written a few days ago is just one example of her incisive analysis while her less than courageous colleagues who are much younger than Ms. Thomas remain silent and cowed in the press briefing room.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....mas02.html

Awesome chief - please begin sending every Sanitary district worker, public maintenance employee, airline pilot, baggage handler, policeman, and every other person that does their job to their fullest intent a candy-gram.

I posted nothing about Helen’s age, because that is not the issue at hand - my point being, which must have been to subtle for you to engage, is that this is where we are after 7 years of Bush co. - that we send flowers to journalists that don’t blow sunshine up the Administration’s corn hole. Fuck that. Begin holding journalists up to a higher standard.

/end rant.

Damning her with faint praise? Perhaps so. I already admit, she deserves credit- simply by virtue of mere comparison to her limp colleagues- for at l